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BY

EDWIN L. EARP

Professor of Christian Sociology, Drew Theological Seminary

NEW YORK: - - EATON & MAINS
CINCINNATI: - - JENNINGS & GRAHAM

‘Theology Library

SCHOOLOR THEGL@ey
AGE REMeN i
California

Copyright, 1911 by
EATON & MAINS

TO
THE MEMORY OF MY MOTHER
WHO TAUGHT ME BY HER QUIET CONFIDENCE IN

THE INTEGRITY OF HUMAN NATURE, HER

TRUST IN THE LEADING OF THE
HEAVENLY FATHER, AND HER UNTIRING

ENERGY IN DOING GOOD, MY FIRST
LESSONS IN SOCIAL ENGINEERING

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CONTENTS

PAGE
NWTRODUCTION «c)- sos sso e sete ce estes Seana ta hair ore connie eras / xi
Why We Need the Social Engineer..............-.-- xi

All Human Life Socialized To-day in Consciousness and
INGHVEIN esaGorae panba uaa DSS Do aOo od COCO nO ODED xiii
The Religious Social Engineer............--.+.+-+++5+ Xviil

PART I
THe SocraL ENGINEER IN THE MAKING

CHAPTER PAGE
I Tur SoctaL CONSCIOUSNESS. .....2-+cee eee recess 3
Its Meaning and Value............+----+++-+5 3
Public Opinions, 5 isjasjso0025 ods epmiacs sis sees oe 6
The Social) Wille oe slerssina cele a iakemteianiesels evere @ ee 10
Social Control and Reform.............---+-+: 12
TE SoctaL ORGANIZATION. .....0002.c0cceceerceces 14
The Reasons for Social Organization........... 14
The Principles of Social Organization.......... 19
The Kinds of Social Organization.............. 21

The Relation of Social Organizations to Each
(ONG dened AA 9 ot Gon oC bebo HEnead ce ea 3
III Socta MACHINERY AND SociaAL ENGINEERING.... 26
Social Machinery Defined.........---+20+++++> 28
Social Engineering Defined...........+++++--- 33
IV Soctran CuassIFICATION, CLEAVAGES, AND ConriictT. 37
Social Classification—How Constituted......... 38
Varieties of Social Classification...........---- 41
Factors Which Give Social Advantage.......-. 43
Social Cleavage Defined..........-.-+eeee ees 48
Social BarrierS........-2ccecseesceesesecrers 50
neta) OGIALC Uaeis ae erelacsietserencrereroueaieorehsneL ony atone 52
Christian Education and Society.........----- 55
V Tue Socray Erriciency oF THE INDIVIDUAL..... 59
Fundamental Questions.......-..++++eeeesees 60
Categorical Answers......-+-++++eee errr eres 61
Explanations. .......-.eeeseeeeeeereeeeees 62
An Educational Problem........-.-.+-+++++++ 70
Social Efficiency Utilized.........6--+2+-2 500 72
What the Church Can Do.......-..---+++-++- 76

Vv

vi CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
VI THe DrvELOoPpMENT AND EDUCATION OF THE

SOCIALSMIND foie ceetee oo tee em ie rere 81

What We Mean by the Social Mind............ 81

The Development of the Social Mind........... 84

The Education of the Social Mind............. 86

VIT Socrat: PROGRESS. \ nies) eel ele ote ol) s aie eet = we ee 91

A Topic of Social Education.................. 91

Tdeas of “Propress.i..eo ce ene 5 2 nee se Sees the 92

How Progress May be Measured..............- 95

Kinds of Progress to be Measured............. 97

Definitions of Progress..............-2+-e20005 99

VITL SocranSruping ne: aan. elo eee tte ieee 103

Specific Social Studies...............:.......-. 105

A Special Commission on Social Studies........ 106

A List of Specific Problems..................- 107

IX FRrenpsarp as A SoctaL Force...............-. 112

The Art of Making Friends................... 112

Friendship-a Paradox.4......¢.<.-0--s+--+-+e- 114

The Basis of Friendship...................... 115

Characteristics of True Friendship............. 118

Christian Hriendship..-m.c seats eee 120

XA SOCEAD LEADERSHIP? soe eoe iia oa nti ere 122

In the Field of City Government.............. 123

In Legislation and Administration............. 124

In the Field of Organized Industry............ 125

In Organized Charity... 0.1 c > es iar 126

XI THe Caukca’s: PERIL... oe oe cee eee ee rece 128

What Is'a Peril? sccicelhac sccm ete crcl erence 128

Failure to Attract the Multitudes.............. 129

The Spiritual Death Rate.................... 131

Failure to Master the Modern Social Movement. 132

PART II
Tue SocraL ENGINEER AT Work
XII THe Meanine or Socran SERVICE............... 137
Among Church Denominations................ 137
Illustrations of Social Service................. 139

Individual Social Service..................... 141

CONTENTS vil
CHAPTER PAGE

XIII How tro Work THE SpsciFic Firups or Socran
SHR VICE eed aelorfersiotcG oisieevesorieavalever keieunete 145
How to Do—the Modern Question............. 145
Methods Develop Readily for the Busy Man.... 146
Specific Wields eines ote ree cee erate ee te 148
The Study of the Fields.................++065 149
The Motive for our Study..............-.00-- 150
he Study of, Causes... asta cic vctsiels see ss = ole 153
XIV Soctarizep CHARITY.........0cccs cece cece eeees 157
What Concerning the Poor?..................- 160
What Concerning the Afflicted?..............-. 164
What Concerning the Bad?...............++-- 166
XV Tram Work For THE COMMUNITY.........--.-- 169
How ta Proceeds cca eis ello ts osnle sl eleleiei= te alas 172
1. Team Work Against Tuberculosis......... 172
2 For Public Health 02.2.5 2.2.00 ce cine os 174
8. Social-Service Department in Hospitals.... 175
4, Against Juvenile Delinquency...........- 176

5. For Keeping Boys in the Church During
IAdolescencete acini sea atsinm ele sirieiscis ose 177
6. In Church Federation.............+++0- . 178
7. In Relating the Church to Industry....... 179
XVI Tue Crry PROBLEM...........0 cee ee eee e eres 181
The City Not a Menace........-+--++++eeeeee 182
The Fact of Congestion.........-2+s+eeeerees 183
The Results of Congestion..........-+-.s+++++5 186
The Causes of Congestion........--.++ss++++: . 187
The Relief of Congestion.............+++eee 190
XVII Preventive Soctan ENGINEERING......+-+-+-+- . 194
Prevention in the Medical Profession.........-. 194
Prevention of Germinal Diseases..........-+-- 195
Prevention of Drunkenness.........+.+se-es+5 198
Preventive Criminology......--+sssseeeeereee 201
Preventive Work for Defectives........+++-++> 203
Preventive Work Against Pauperism........-.- 204
XVIII PREVENTIVE SALVATION........-0eesee ee seeeeee 206
What Has Led to Emphasis on this Subject. ... 207
The Value of Prevention.........--+++-++ee05 209
The Method in Preventive Salvation.........-- 210
Guarding the Sources of Life.........-.++.+++: 212
_ Preventive Salvation Not Negative.........+-- 213

Preventive Salvation Educational..........+-- 215

vill CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
XIX Soctan SinNING AND SoctaL SALVATION........ els
Definitions aon eee ee ote 218
The Social Perspective of Sin................. 221
Society May Sin Against the Individual........ 225
Society May Sin Against the Group............ 227
SocialliSalvation seers see ee eee ieee 228
The Social Factors in Salvation............... 228
What Can the Church Do?.................... 235
XX Tar CHURCH AND THE WORKINGMAN............ 238
What the Subject Implies.................... 238

The Church’s Present Attitude toward the
Labor: Movement. sece eo. ee ee eee 241

How Can the Church Help the Labor Movement? 244
What Can the Labor Movement Do to Help the

* Chureli 2: ot 900 i 4 Sein Ste nine ec ee 249
XXI Tue Soctan SETTLEMENT............-ceccceeeee 251
Carrying the Church to the People............. 252
The Integrity of Human Nature............... 255
The Ministry of Personality..................- 255
" What Can the Church Do?.................... 258
XXII Tue Socran Causzs or THE Boy PROBLEM...... 262
We Have a Boy Problem... ..¢....<sasnsceuse 262
Family Neglect a Social Cause................ 265
Community Neglect... 5.254... «s0utl. «caumenee 268
Church Neglect a Social Cause................ 269
Preventive Salvation the Solution............. 271

XXIII Toe Socran Causes or THE Sprearruan DpatH
RADISH EL AR BO ans ce eo Oe Rae 273
The Popular Use of the Term................. 273
Neglectof Childhood)... ... teas = oes +. eee 275
Neglect to Organize Adult Members........... 278
Other Causes Named............0..ccccccccce 281
XXIV ConseRvVATION OF CHRISTIAN RESOURCES........ 283
The Hacts in the:Casersse saeces one eee 285
What) Shall WesDo?s) san aaenie. en cee ee 293
XXV Tue Socta, Empnasis tn MopeRN Epucation... 297
Why We Need this Emphasis................. 300
BIBLIOGRAPHY,.« ten etreioeh eee eee eee 309

PREFACE

Iw presenting this work to the reading public
under the given title, ‘‘The Social Engineer,’
T am fully conscious of its limitations with re-
spect to the whole field of social service which
has taken on technical forms in industry, in re-
ligion, in philanthropy, in medical practice, and
in the ever-increasing fields of charities and cor-
rection within a very recent period. Yet I am
quite sure that the subjects treated in the first
part contain many of the essentials which any
man should know before choosing social en-
gineering as a lifework; and in the second part
I have endeavored to point out some of the spe-
cific social tasks and to indicate some of the
methods which may be of practical interest to
all who feel the need of doing the things that
count for most in the betterment of human
society. We are conscious of the fact that to-
day the greatest waste of time and resources is
not in lack of machinery or of men, or of knowl-
edge of the forces available for achievement,
but, rather, in the lack of men who can keep
others at work with the machinery, and in re-
lation to all the forces available, without so-
cial friction.

The social engineer is meeting this need in

1x

ne PREFACE

modern society, and I shall feel gratified if in
this volume I may have shown what he is in the
making, and how he does his work in the fields
of opportunity. As one deeply interested in the
social tasks of the modern Church, and from
the viewpoint of one engaged in teaching young
men who are to become leaders in organizing
the Church membership in performing these
tasks, the writer has placed especial emphasis
upon religious social engineering, while not
neglecting to give the widest scope to the work
of the social engineer in every phase of social
organization for the elevation of humanity.

The purpose of this book is to meet a felt
need now being given intelligent expression by
men’s clubs, brotherhoods, Bible classes, Young
Men’s Christian Association classes, and other
organizations with philanthropic motives, for
a text-book on social studies and actual social
service. It is hoped that it will not only serve
a demand of the busy pastor in the modern so-
cialized ministry of the Church to the com-
munity, but that it also may be of practical in-
terest to the general public.

Epwin L. Harp.

Drew Theological Seminary, Madison, N. J.

INTRODUCTION
Wuy We NEep tHe Socian ENGINEER

Tere never has been a time like the pres-
ent when the social class-consciousness was so
highly developed. In all current literature we
read the products of this class-consciousness in
discussions of socialism, capitalism, trades-
unionism, social democracy, class conflict, race
antagonism, social classes, woman and child
labor, congestion of population, race suicide,
divorce, gamblers versus the people, the de-
cisions of courts and the interests of a class,
Legislatures versus the people, the saloon
-versus prohibitionists, revisionists and ‘‘stand-
patters,’’ and a thousand or more distinctions
of a smaller group differentiation.

The problem of the unemployed is becoming
acute in most of the great cities of the world,
and the task of Sisyphus must be every year
repeated in making up the budget for the vic-
tims of poverty. The problem of congested
quarters of the cities with the attendant misery.
is disheartening to the most optimistic social
workers in this field, and they begin to ask if
there is not something fundamentally wrong
with our economic system that permits these

conditions to exist.
Xi

xii INTRODUCTION

Organized labor and organized capital, work-
ers and employers, are often in conflict, involv-
ing loss and suffering to both, and also to the
public, which is dependent upon them for all
it needs and uses in the complex industrial and
commercial life of modern times.

Again we find the opportuneness of this
subject illustrated from the fact that there are
sO many organizations being formed in our
cities and industrial centers to-day for the pur-
pose of civic betterment, community welfare,
and the bettering of the conditions under which
men and women labor. Social settlements and
institutional church work carried on by the so-
cialized church organizations furnish splendid
opportunities for our young people to engage
in forms of social service, and afford channels
of work where the social energies of the youth
may be released for life-saving and life-im-
provement. Many of these social organizations,
as now conducted, are not distinctively Chris-
tian, but could be easily made so if the better
trained of our young men and women would
join them, and by the force of Christian motive
and character dominate their policies and ac-
tivities.

Questions of sanitation and health and the
social character of disease were never so em-
phasized before in our growing city popula-
tions. In one school last year in one of our

INTRODUCTION xiii

growing industrial centers during the first three
days of the fall term, under the direction of a
trained nurse as medical inspector, eighty-five
children were sent home because their condi-
tion was a menace to the health of the hundreds
of their neighbors’ children present in the
building; one case was that of scarlet fever.

Hospitals are to-day organizing, in connec-
tion with their clinical work for outdoor pa-
tients, and even for those receiving treatment
in the wards, departments of social service for
the purpose of helping the patients in their
home environment, and of ministering to their
social needs in the conditions causal to their
real trouble. Men and women of broad charity
and thorough training are needed who can take
up the difficult task that is yet to be done after
the physician has dismissed the case; and fre-
quently they must call upon the organizations
of the Church to look after those cases which
require social treatment.

All human life to-day is being socialized in
consciousness and in activity. In considering
its ethical phase it should be understood at the
outset that the modern movement for social
service does not differ from other religious
movements for moral reform so much in aim
as in method or points of emphasis. It is a
movement that involves organization of indi-
viduals, codperation and federation of groups

xlV INTRODUCTION

in mass-effort for the accomplishment of social
tasks. It recognizes that the powers of evil to-
day are socially organized, and therefore the
salvation of society involves social methods
and machinery in order to overthrow the or-
ganized powers of evil. It recognizes that to-
day it is possible to ‘‘sin by syndicate,’’ and
therefore our methods of salvation must be so-
cialized. It is a movement to regenerate en-
vironment so that the spiritual life of the in-
dividual may have the best chance to function
and prove its quality by fruitage.

While not ignoring the value of remedial
agencies, it places emphasis on the preventive
methods in moral reform. It seeks to better
the conditions of living men not so much by
prohibiting evils themselves as by the releasing
of energies that will keep the life of the indi-
vidual in society normal.

It means that the social consciousness of so-
ciety has been aroused to the necessity of doing
something heroic to regenerate the changing so-
cial order by bettering the conditions of living
where the life struggle and class conflict are
most threatening to the whole structure of
Christian Hivtaer a serious search for a
social antitoxin that will destroy the toxic
effects of social sinning in the body social; an
earnest attempt to apply the preventive meas-
ures of the gospel to the problem of sin as well

Pas
a

INTRODUCTION XV

as the redemptive agencies of the Word of
God. It means organization to discover the
causes of social ills and an organized effort to
destroy sin at its source. It means an earnest
endeavor to save human life by regenerating
and transforming the environment that pollutes
and destroys the springs of human life. It is
our endeavor not so much to save from the slum
as it is a determination to remove the slum;
not alone the screening of our children from
infectious mosquitoes, but the filling up of the
pools where they breed.

Social engineering means not merely chari-
ties and philanthropies that care for the vic-
tims of vice and poverty, but also intelligent
organized effort to eliminate the causes that
make these philanthropies necessary, and it
means also an attempt at a readjustment of our
economic and industrial system by wise states-
manship through social control, so that the
profits of social production may be more equi-
tably distributed to all the legitimate factors in
society.

In one age the master of the household could
say to the men involuntarily idle, waiting in the
market place for a chance to work, ‘‘Go work
in my vineyard’’; but in our organized indus-
trial age the captain of industry may send a
message from his touring car in some remote
village of the Alps through a cable company of

xvi INTRODUCTION

which he may be a director to some one in au-
thority in ‘‘the system,’’ saying to this man, or
group of men, ‘‘Go work in the mines, the
smelters, the shops, the mills,’’ or in any other
of the many activities in the complex organized
process of getting the fruits of his vineyards
or fields in place and form for the use of the
consumer in a world market, as the case may:
be.

We see the same fact in our church work;
in one age it is the Master’s command for the
seventy to go out into the cities and villages
by twos or for the one hundred and twenty to
go by ones to preach the good tidings of the
kingdom; but to-day his command may mean
the organization of societies, the establishment
of institutions, the building of vast structures,
the management of world-wide enterprises for
doing the work of redeeming men and regen-
erating human society.

In the industrial and commercial world we
have learned that codperation is better than
destructive competition, therefore we have cor-
porations and mergers for conducting the great
businesses of society with the maximum of effi-
ciency and with the minimum of waste and cost
in the process of production and distribution.
So in the religious activities of the world we
are learning that federation and codperation
are better than denominational self-interest

>
=F

INTRODUCTION XVii

and waste of economic resources and men in
duplicating of work and overlapping of ter-
ritory. Therefore the great religious denomi-
nations and their subordinate organizations
within them are becoming socially conscious of
how, by federative action, they may together
carry out the social program of Jesus and real-
ize the vision of the prophets and the social
ideal of the apostle Paul.

One of the distinguishing characteristics of
the modern social movement is that it seeks
not to get all men to think alike, or to hold the
same opinions about any given plan or project
of social reform, but its chief aim is to get men
to act together in an organized way for the de-
struction of evils in society and the creation of
good in the community. As a result, we find
the most fruitful examples of social unity to-
day in the field of service and not in the fields
of controversy. We have no time for burning
heretics in our haste to brand sinners in high
places. We see religious denominations that
differ widely in theological discussions working
shoulder to shoulder in the battle with the slum
and in the task of evangelizing the world in this
generation.

This, then, is our point of view: we have
reached a stage in the evolution and develop-
ment of methods in social engineering where
we see the need of emphasis upon the task of

XViii INTRODUCTION

realizing in social conduct the moral and re-
ligious ideals we have been teaching the indi-
vidual who lives in a real world that confronts
him so often in the Christian race with a social
handicap.

It is not religion that becomes insipid and
unattractive to so many young men and women
in our day, but rather more often our inapt,
unrelated, sometimes erroneous, though usually
well-meaning interpretations of the historic
facts about it, or our blundering methods in
carrying out our problem.

Tur Reuicious Soctan ENGINEER

The religious social engineer is one who can
help the religious leader to establish a desired
working force in any field of need, and keep it
in sympathetic codperation with all other forces
working for the establishment of the kingdom
of God on earth in harmony with the program
and leadership of Jesus Christ.

It would be a calamity for a hungry house-
hold if the harvest hands in getting ready for
their work should plunge into acrimonious dis-
cussion over the relative merits of machinery
and methods, and even kill one another with
their sickles, or play Juggernaut with their
reapers and forget all about the harvest field,
the threshing, and the grist.

Before the Christian minister to-day lies the

a~

_—

_-

INTRODUCTION XIX

great world field of teeming, throbbing, strug-
gling human population, a vast network of
organizations of human beings grouped in ac-
cordance with the natural laws and forces that
are at work through heredity and environment,
and also the social integration and differentia-
tion of these groups into voluntary and pur-
posive associations, in response to psychic
forces that have been aroused by an intelligent
response to human needs immediately felt or
more remotely discerned. His task is none
other than the redeeming of the world, the re-
generating of human society. . He is not only to
proclaim, as did John the Baptist, that the king-
dom of heaven is at hand, but also, with the
daring and confidence of his Lord, he is to say
not only ‘‘To-day is this program being fulfilled
in your ears,’’ but is to back it up by sacrifice
in intelligent service, and compel the multitudes
among whom he has done his work to say, ‘‘This
day is his program being carried out in our
town.’’ His work is not done when he has
preached his message to the individual alone,
but it reaches further and includes the regenera-
tion of the social order, so that the individual
may find it easier to keep saved. To succeed
in this field to-day he must not only understand
the principles of social engineering, but he must
have as his assistant the social engineer.

The man at the head of a great construction

XxX INTRODUCTION

company is just as much interested in securing
a practical engineer to keep his men at work
in the right place and at the right time as he is
in securing men who can manage the technique
of planning a structure and of judging mate-
rials. In church work to-day we often have
good leaders who know the technique of organi-
zation; we have men who can finance church
enterprises; but we often fail of the best re-
sults in a community full of opportunities be-
cause we lack the practical social engineers who
can organize and keep at work the masses of
men and women within the membership of our
churches and Sunday schools. You sometimes
hear of friction between groups of persons in
carrying out some great enterprise in church
work. Why is this? It is often because there
is no one to do the work of a practical social
engineer, who knows how to keep everybody at
work in such an organized way that there will
be no friction or interference between groups.
It was during the Boxer rebellion in China,
ten years ago, that a Methodist preacher who
had studied practical engineering in his years
of preparation saved the day for civilization
and the Christian Church in that great empire.
So we should insist that the men who go out
from our colleges and theological seminaries
shall have that acquaintance with practical so-
cial organization and social engineering which

po
+

INTRODUCTION “a

in any emergency of the social struggle will
enable them to engineer all available forces in
the defense of the faith.

We want men to go out from our halls of
Christian learning with hearts warm with the
love of Jesus for the world, and with heads
clear with Paul’s vision of the kingdom; men
who are wise enough, broad enough, and far-
seeing enough to measure all the difficulties and
relate themselves to the forces available for
conquest; men with faith enough in their re-
sources to say, ‘‘We are well able to possess
the land’’; men who are strong and pure
enough to utilize even the help of a Rahab in
securing information regarding the character
of the modern Jerichos. Sometimes even good
men are so afraid of soiling their garments of
ceremonialism that they allow the enemies of
decent society to maintain not only dirty, dis-
eased tenements, and contaminated milk, and
an impure water supply, but also to pollute the
innocent of our churches and homes by their
unholy institutions open seven days in the week.
Yes, we even let them elect sometimes aldermen
to hold a deciding vote as to how our reforms
shall be allowed to proceed, if at all.

We need men for these social tasks who are
seeking a place to serve and not merely a place
of honor. In all our religious organized effort
in the past we have often suffered defeat be-

Xxli INTRODUCTION

cause we have allowed men to be in office who
wanted the place rather than a chance to serve
with efficiency.

Again, we need men of knowledge. Piety is
an indispensable asset, but without knowledge
it can be almost as inefficient in securing re-
sults as indifference. We need men who know
how to find the sources of evil and hit them
hard at the strategic time and place, rather
than waste their energies upon nonessentials
which belong to the category of diversions; men
who will not be diverted from the source of the
fire in the basement by the sight of smoke es-
caping from the roof of the building. We need
patient men; not that kind of patience which
cries, ‘‘O Lord, how long?’’ and does nothing;
but that kind which after putting the rascals
out of office is willing to pay the extra cost of
keeping them out until the new regime has vin-
dicated its right to remain in the confidence of
all decent people and receive their support.

We must, therefore, develop a new type of
minister or religious worker, a religious social
engineer, for the work of the Sunday school,
who understands the psychology of the adoles-
cent and knows the social forces which domi-
nate the thinking and conduct of young people;
a social engineer for the men of the church who
have no work to do in many cases worthy of a
man of strength, one who knows the city and

INTRODUCTION Xxill

its needs and can relate the men and women of
the church and the community to the civic life
of the town or city. Another type of social en-
gineer should be developed for the country
problem, who will be able to direct the social
forces of a whole county and relate them to the
best interests of the State and nation. Still
another type of engineer is needed who will be
able to deal in an intelligent way with the for-
eigners in the villages and towns and the great
colonies of them in our large cities. In other
words, we need a type of man who knows the
value of social machinery, and how to run it,
and is willing to stay on the job.

PART I

THE SOCIAL ENGINEER IN THE
MAKING

CHAPTER I
THE SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS

Tr the social engineer is to become an im-
portant factor in our modern civilization, it
will be necessary for him to develop in himself
the social consciousness before he can hope to
succeed in molding the opinions of others in the
performance of social tasks. It is, therefore,
our purpose in this chapter to point out some-
what in detail the function of the social con-
sciousness in the doing of social service. This
will involve a discussion of its meaning, its re-
lation to public opinion, the social will, the work
of social reform, and the establishment of per-
manent social control.

Irs MEANING AND VALUE

Now, we all know that we live in many re-
lations of which we are never conscious except
as they are pointed out to us, and in others of
which we are conscious only at times. In fact,
the mind is made up of a body of knowledge, a
mere fragment of which we hold in conscious-
ness at any one time, and it is by the aid of the
memory, or of some other person repeating to
us the facts, that we bring these fragments of

3

4 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

knowledge into consciousness. So with the
mind of the community. Many things are go-
ing on of which the community is not aware,
whether for good or ill, and these facts must
first come into the consciousness of society be-
fore anything will be attempted in the line of
social service for the betterment and welfare of
the community. The great task in social en-
gineering is to keep society conscious of its
needs until it can be aroused to do what ought
to be done to better the conditions of which it
is aware, or to change the social habits and cus-
toms of a people so that evil may be avoided or
good achieved.

We often make use of an ‘Irish bull’’ in the
expression, ‘‘One never takes advice until it is
too late to take it.’? The reason for this is
plain. The one giving advice seldom has it in
consciousness until the tendencies he sees in
others have already led to conditions which
awaken it, and the one to whom it is given sel-
dom, if ever, brings it into consciousness until
a condition is reached that awakens him to it,
and then it is often too late to take it, for that
particular case at least. For illustration: here
is a boy who becomes conscious that he has
taken cold and so he goes to his mother with the
fact. Now, it is not likely he was conscious at
the time of any indiscretion, such as going out
without his rubbers, talking at the door without

=
=

THE SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS ak

coat or hat too long with his chum, or sitting in
a draught while in a perspiration after play at
recess. His mother may have warned and ad-
vised him concerning all these points, but his
trouble was in not having them in consciousness
at the proper time to avoid the result. So in
every community there is great need for that
kind of social engineering that will keep the in-
dividuals and the groups, as well as society at
large, conscious of what is necessary to do to
prevent social ills as well as of what may be
done to destroy them after they have taken root.
The greatest service of the life guards at the
seashore is warning people of the dangers and
keeping people from going out too far. It is
only incidentally they have to rescue from
drowning some foolish one who has not taken
heed and ventured too far out.

In the work of social service for the com-
munity there are greater need and more
promising results in the sphere of keeping
the social consciousness of the people awake
to the modes of prevention rather than to
the methods of rescue. Our resolutions of
indignation on the discovery of conditions of
evil in a community will mean more when
we have done more public service to pre-
vent them. As Professor Patten has well said,
‘‘When we see a drunken man reeling in the
street we talk much about the weakness of hu-

6 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

man nature, and not enough on why the saloon
remains on the corner.’”!

Social consciousness, whether in the indi-
vidual or in the mind of the group, involves
not only the consciousness of the presence of
others but the idea of moral obligation in those
relations; not only the notion of how others
may help me, but also how I may help others
by rightly associating myself with them for our
mutual good and well-being. We see, then, that
there is nothing mysterious about the social
consciousness, but that it is a familiar fact of
ordinary Seatiae, What we need to under-
stand is its relation to the work of social service
and social organization. In the history of all
social reform there must first take place the
awakening of the consciousness of need. This
in its organized form we call public opinion, in
group action the expression of the social will,
and in the changed social order we desiente
it as social reform, or social control.

Pustic Oprnion

It is not only necessary to have present in
society the consciousness of social needs, but
these needs must be intelligently understood
before anything is likely to be attempted in an
organized form for the good of the community.
This intelligent understanding of social needs

1“The New Basis of Civilization.”

st

==

THE SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS is

we call public opimion. Professor Cooley ex-
presses the idea as follows: ‘‘We may find so-
cial consciousness either in a particular mind
or as a cooperative activity of many minds.
The social ideas that I have are closely con-
nected with those that other people have, and
act and react upon them to form a whole. This
gives us public opinion, in the broad sense of a
group state of mind of which the group is more
or less distinctly aware. The unity of public
opinion, like all vital unity, is not one of uni-
formity but one of organization or interaction
and mutual influence.’’! Here, it seems to me,
is one of the most fruitful fields of social en-
gineering for our Sunday schools, and brother-
hoods, and kindred organizations of young peo-
ple, as well as for the public congregation, and
that is, the development of the social conscious-
ness of many individual minds into organized
expressions of public opinion.

Public opinion is not possible without the
means and agencies of intercommunication of
minds with similar ideas. A distinguished mis-
sionary, returned from the Philippine Islands
a few years ago, said: ‘‘In the Philippines there
is no public opinion because there is no way of
creating it. They have [then, 1905] no news-
papers; and if they had, the people could not

1See Publications of American Sociological Society, vol. i, 1906,

e *p. 101.

8 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

read them, because they have so many different
languages and dialects, and there are few in-
telligent enough to read if they could get them.
In this country you buy your public opinion for
two cents in the morning and one cent at night.’’
He meant by this that to have public opinion
that will respond to a need in the community we
must have the means of communication. The
Sunday school is a significant illustration, be-
cause we have in our organization and litera-
ture the means of performing for the public
this most important social service. Of course
the initiative must be taken by the minister, su-
perintendent, and their intelligent and efficient
corps of teachers. In matters of civic improve-
ment such a movement may be started with an
adult Bible class, or a brotherhood, or Epworth
League, Christian Endeavor Society, or some
other adult organization in the Church com-
munity. To illustrate how public opinion may
be effectively organized: some years ago a
student in one of my classes in the university
who was preaching in a country town dis-
covered that there existed in that place a no-
torious gambling den that was so conducted in
connection with a candy shop and cigarette
stand that many of the boys and young men
were being corrupted and drawn away from
the Sunday school and church. He asked me
what he should do. I advised him to organize a

=
oF

THE SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS 9

committee of trusty men to investigate, get
facts and affidavits, and, after finding the law
applicable to such facts, to present them to
the proper authority and at the same time give
the facts to the public, preferably through the
daily press; and if it refused, to employ the
pulpit and platform in giving the facts to the
public. He succeeded in a short time in ridding
the town of a social evil by organized public
opinion that the people as individuals had been
conscious of for years, but had never before
seriously considered removing by concerted
action.

By using the International Lessons and the
publication of literature on the same themes we
have done a splendid service for church unity
and Christian federation among Protestant de-
nominations; and by the adoption of such de-
partments of social service in the Sunday school
literature of the present the editors have taken
a wise step toward making possible the spread
of public opinion of a sane, Christian type upon
many of the pressing social problems of the
present, such as child-labor, divorce, the social
evil and the disastrous line of social diseases
that follow in its wake, the improvement of the
conditions of the wage-workers, the menace
of congested population in the cities, and the
betterment of life conditions in the rural dis-
tricts.

10 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

THe Sociran WiLL

The Hebrew prophets were led to say, ‘‘The
people are destroyed for lack of knowledge,’’
but the modern prophet can change that a little
and say, ‘‘The people are destroyed for lack of
well-codrdinated social action in matters they
already know full well.’’

*‘Social will differs from public opinion only
in implying a more continuous and effective
guide to social development.’’! We discover
after a little investigation that many of the ills
of society are not directly willed by anybody,
but are the by-products of conduct otherwise
willed—for example: drunkenness, social dis-
eases, accidents in industry, the slum, depriva-
tion and suffering of neutrals in warfare, ete.
All are the results of ignorance. A young man
is killed in the act of trying to stop a runaway
horse, not because of any bad will, but, prob-
ably, because he was ignorant of the method of
seizing him with the minimum of danger and
the maximum of good result. A man greatly
esteemed by his firm, and of great value to the
community and the Church, in attempting to
catch a car in motion, that he may meet an ap-
pointment, is crushed beneath the wheels. Here
is an ill to the community the result of conduct
with good intent. The high death rate of in-

1See Cooley, op. cit., p. 104.

THE SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS 11

fants in the downtown district of the city is not
due to the bad will of anybody in particular,
but, rather, to the lack of social will in provid-
ing for the inspection of the milk supply, the
cleaning of the streets, and the proper enforce-
ment of adequate tenement-house laws. ‘‘Thus
it is not bad will, but lack of will, that is mainly
the cause of evil things; they exist outside the
sphere of choice. We lack rational self-direc-
tion, and suffer not so much from our sins, dark
as those may be, as from our blindness, weak-
ness, and confusion.’

While it is true that most ills in society are
not directly willed, yet it is, nevertheless, true
that there are some very great evils that are
directly the outcome of the evil, selfish will of
certain individuals who, like a distinguished
citizen of no mean city, when before an investi-
gation committee, declared he and his political
associates were working for their own pockets
all the time. Such evils as have been unearthed
during the last ten years have been possible be-
cause the public had not yet become conscious
of its power to correct them, while individuals
who knew they were breaking the law were will-
ing to take the risks because of the ignorance of
the public, or because they thought public
servants could be bought off with threats or
bribes. The public social will has been stirred

1 Cooley, op. cit., p. 106.

12 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

to action in punishing the ‘‘boodlers’’ and
‘‘grafters,’’ ‘‘rebaters’’ and ‘‘loan sharks’’ in
many parts of the country, and we believe it is
possible so to develop the social will that so-
ciety by its obedience-compelling power may be
able to bring all wrongdoers to justice, and so
modify legislation that the individual wrong-
doer can no longer dodge behind the corpora-
tion, or the corporation dodge behind the law;
we shall then have brought that kind of reform
through social control that will guarantee the
greatest good to all legitimate factors of human
society.

Socran ControL AND REFORM

All our social activities, however, expressed
in movements and organized effort for social
reform, would be but a thankless task if they
did not result in permanent habits of social con-
trol in the community. We have had some
splendid examples in the recent past of how the
will of the people can be aroused so as to inau-
gurate great social reforms, as, for example,
in city government administration, State pro-
hibition, control of public service corporations,
and anti-gambling legislation; but it yet re-
mains for us to prove that we can keep the
public conscience keyed up to the tension of our
knowing whether these reforms are to be made
permanent and progressive until we have

m=
=<

THE SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS 13

reached the state of permanent stable social
control.

Here, then, is our supreme task—the develop-
ment of administrative efficiency that will re-
sult in permanent social control. This can be
done only by persistent effort on the part of all
our educational institutions and agencies in the
home, in the Church, in the State, and in the
nation at large in awakening the social con-
sciousness of individuals and groups to see the
social needs of our times; in the organization
of public opinion through the various means
in intercommunication that will become an in-
telligent guide of the social will, which must be
aroused to definite and persistent effort by
altruistic motives in the Christian community,
and in the patient, persistent performance of
public duties until reforms become permanent
habits established in institutions of social con-
trol.

CHAPTER II
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

Ir is our purpose in this chapter to give more
in detail the reasons for social organization in
the community, the principles to be observed
in the formation of such organizations as shall
be of real value to the life of the people, the
kinds of organizations that best meet certain
classes of needs in society, the principles gov-
erning the relation of organizations to each
other, and the conclusions we may draw from
these facts that may be of value to the social en-
gineer in every community.

Tur Reasons ror SoctaL OrGANIZATION

It must be understood at the outset, by all
workers within the Church and Sunday school,
or any like organizations which propose to do
social service, that the reasons for social or-
ganization are primarily and fundamentally ex-
pressed in the various needs of society and the
actual conditions of human beings outside of
rather than within the special group that is
merely seeking to perpetuate its own organized
existence, or to get glory by making some kind
of a statistical report at a convention of the

14

AAs
=f

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 15

like-minded. Whenever any organization has
reached a stage where most of its energies are
put forth to maintain its own existence, rather
than perform a service to the community, it
has already forfeited its right to be called an
organization for social service. It would be like
a fellow I saw once attempting to mow a field
of grass; the most of his time was spent in
whetting his scythe, going for a drink, eating
his lunch, and resting in the shade. The real
reason for his being there was that the grass
needed to be cut.

We are beginning in our day to sympathize
with the tramp (rather than with his employer)
who left his job because he could not see any
sane reason for carrying a pile of stones from
one side of the road to the other, repeatedly,
even to furnish an industrial test for a ‘‘hobo.”’
Many young men and women lose interest in
organizations within the Church and com-
munity because there seems to be no real good
reason for their existence. There are always
fewer desertions from the army in times of war
than in times of peace, because the rank and
file can see more clearly the reason for drill and
forced marches.

There is a law in society that should be
emphasized by all social workers ; it is that the
association of presence is always strengthened
by the association of activity; that is, people

16 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

who have been associated in like forms of work
are more likely to get along together in an or-
ganization that depends for its strength upon
the unity of its members. Or, in other words,
the strongest and most vigorous organizations
are those which have as their real object the
doing of work that counts for something in a
community apart from the existence of the
organization itself. I sometimes think the real
reason the disciples had toiled all night and
had taken nothing was because they had east
their net on the wrong side of the ship; or, to
put it in another way, they had put the ship
between the net and the fish, for when, at the
command of Jesus, they cast their net on the
right side of the ship, it was ‘‘filled with a multi-
tude of fishes.’’ It seems sometimes that as
‘‘fishers of men’’ we get the organization be-
tween our real purpose and the people. We
seem to spend more time in holding meetings
and banquets, and geeing and hawing over
points of constitutionality and parliamentary
practice than in actual work in the fields of op-
portunity.

All social organization is based primarily
upon needs that are felt in the community, and
begins its life only after these needs have been
intelligently understood by some one in the
group who takes the initiative, and when they
have been made known in an intelligent way to

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 17

others of the group. Later on, however, in the
administrative work of social organizations
needs more remote are discovered, and ways
of meeting them are provided for by further
organization, until, finally, we reach the stage
of culture and civilization that is made up of a
vast nexus of voluntary purposive associations
and organizations to meet the various needs
of men with highly developed social con-
sciousness.

Tt will not be necessary to go into detail con-
cerning the many and various needs now in the
consciousness of society. We give only one or
two examples: The fact of cruelty to and neg-
lect of children has been known and felt by
the human race since the days of Solomon, when
with real tact and practical wisdom he settled
the dispute between two women as to who was
the rightful mother of the child in question ;
but, as a matter of history, there lives to-day in
the vigor of age the man who organized the first
‘‘Gerry Society,’’ for the specific purpose of
the prevention of cruelty to children. Now,
everywhere, we have established child-saving
institutions, and only recently a Conference on
Dependent Children was held in Washington,
D. C., at the call of the President of the United
States,! which has led to the use of the expres-
sion, ‘‘conservation of the national resources in

1 Called by President Roosevelt, January 25-26, 1909.

18 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

children,’’ and the proposed bill in Congress on
a ‘‘Federal Children’s Bureau,’’ which has for
its purpose ‘‘the investigation of all matters
pertaining to the welfare of children and child-
life, and especially questions of infant mor-
tality, the birth rate, physical degeneracy, or-
phanage, juvenile delinquency and juvenile
courts, desertion and illegitimacy, dangerous
occupations, accidents, diseases of children of
the working classes, employment, legislation
affecting children in the several States and
Territories, and such other facts as have a bear-
ing upon the health, efficiency, character, and
training of children.’’

Another example is to be seen in organized
labor. Starting with the consciousness of need
under the conditions of long hours, in unsani-
tary surroundings, at a meager wage, the move-
ment to better these conditions by shorter hours
for a day’s work, healthful conditions in which
to work, and higher wages, has gone on until
its demands embrace needs more remote, even
the distribution of profits, as well as legislation
and political control in the interests of the
wageworkers. So from the initial reason for
organization we at length reach the point of
intelligent consideration and practical treat-
ment of ‘all the more remote factors in
any problem that presses on the public for
solution.

AS

a

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 19

THe PRINCIPLES OF SoctaL ORGANIZATION

When the social consciousness of a com-
munity has been aroused by the needs felt and
intelligently expressed, and social organization
determined upon, it is of importance to know
what are the essential principles of social or-
ganization if we would reach the best results
in social service. We consider these to be as
follows:

1. Function and not form. It matters little
what form an organization may assume if it
has a true function. In fact, it is a well-known
principle in biology that function gives form
to the organism. This can be observed in the
changed condition of the skin of a boy’s heel
after going barefooted in the summer time, or
in the calloused palms of the college professor
after hoeing his garden in the springtime, or in
a thousand instances in the life of fauna and
flora in the changes that take place in the proc-
esses uf evolution. So with a social organiza-
tion; its functions should determine its form;
the work it has to perform in society should de-
termine the character of its formal structure.

9. Purpose and not plan—that which keeps
in view of the end toward which we are work-
ing apart from the initial need. We can some-
times afford to differ in matters of plan if we
can all agree on the purpose for which we are

20 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

organized. When a man in deep water is cry-
ing for help a lifeboat may be best, a rope may
be good, a strong swimmer may be available,
or even a plank thrown to him may buoy him
to shore; but all the time there is but one pur-
pose, and that is getting him on shore.

3. Consecration as well as a constitution.
In fact, in most societies that do any real work
in the community there are few of the workers
that remember a line of the constitution. Some-
times we have to be reminded of constitutional
limitations in the way of a man of unusual fit-
ness for public office, and proceed to get around
them by legislative enactment for the sake of
utilizing the man of real consecration to public
duty. There is little use in attempting social
organization for any specific task unless there
is consecration and patience enough to make
things go in spite of opposition and discourage-
ment, for these inevitably follow social innova-
tion.

4. A strong conviction in the social mind that
human nature is capable of responding to per-
sonal appeal in the endeavor to save individuals,
and groups from one condition to a better state
of existence—such a faith as Jesus had when he
committed the whole scheme of a world’s re-
demption to a few fishermen, taxgatherers, and
tentmakers, who up to the day of Pentecost

1 Secretary of State Knox, for example.

aoe

=<

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 21

seemed to have understood his mission but
poorly, and yet with consecration and zeal they
wrought until they had turned the whole world
upside down and placed the cross at the front
of the conquering legions of the Roman empire,
which made forever possible the dominance of
Christian over pagan civilization.

It is that Christian principle of conscious-
ness of kind that enables us to see in every
human being, no matter how low in the scale of
life, a member of the human brotherhood who
needs our sympathy and our help, that motive
principle in society that releases energies for
rescue and reform not by virtue of what man
is, but by virtue of what he may become, by
the grace of God and the help of his fellows.

Tar Kinps or SoctaL ORGANIZATION

The kind of social organization necessary
for the performance of social service in any
community will have to be determined from the
character of the needs, immediate or remote, to
be met. For example: in a city where there
are vast numbers of delinquent boys who have
been before the juvenile court and put on pro-
bation, an organization like the ‘‘Big Brother
Movement?’ in New York city might be what is
needed, or a ‘‘Big Sister Movement’’—organi-
zations in which the individual man or woman,
acts as a big brother or sister to some boy or

22 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

girl who is without home advantages in giving
through the ministry of personality an example
of better living and a chance to improve oneself
by honest effort without the stigma of accepting
charity and thus becoming pauperized. In an
industrial center where there are frequent ac-
cidents resulting in loss of work, and sometimes
in the loss of the breadwinner, social engineer-
ing might take the form of an organization to
place in remunerative service children old
enough to work, or a day nursery to care for
the little ones while the mothers and older mem.
bers of the family are at work, or societies for
loans of money to buy coal or pay rent under
such conditions. Or it may be a need more re-
mote, such as an educational society to help
some worthy boy or girl through the college or
professional school. In the congested city it
would mean the institutional church, or the so-
cial settlement, or a commission appointed by
the city authorities.

The mission fields afford another example;
here some schools support their own mission-
ary, or a native Bible worker; or the church
may establish a whole mission station in some
part of the home or foreign field, and call upon
the organized groups of the various societies of
the church to raise the funds necessary. We
may classify social organizations, therefore,
from the viewpoint of need, or from the view-

Enid
—

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 23

point of the specific activities they perform in
the social field.1

Tue RELATION OF SocrAL ORGANIZATIONS TO
Eacu OTHER

Tt is a well-known fact in church work that
there is often a lack of harmony and coopera-
tion between the various subsidiary organiza-
tions of the local church, and often between
like organizations of different denominations.
Now this is being overcome in many quarters
by the progress of federation and brother-
hood among the like-minded in denominational
bodies. This, however, is characteristic of all
social organizations. There are stages in the
life of organizations in their relation to each
other just as we observe in the group life of
the race. Conflict is followed by toleration of
equals; alliance and codperation follows, and at
length sympathetic and pleasurable relations
are established as a result of an intelligent
understanding of mutual interests in the same
social field. It would be a fact greatly to be
deplored if the various organizations of the
Christian Church should fall behind industrial
and political organizations in the progress of
peace. The time will come in the local church
and the individual denomination, as well as be-

1¥or a fuller classification see chap. iv of “Social Aspects of
Religious Institutions,” by the writer.

24 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

tween all the forces of Christian effort, when
the program of Paul! will be carried out in the
endeavor to minister to the social needs of
mankind.

Social organization in the church for social
service in the community does not necessarily
involve a separate group of men and women,
or of boys and girls with banners, banquets,
and bouquets, but, on the contrary, it may mean
no specific new organization within the church
at all, but, rather, an intelligent direction by
the superintendent of the Sunday school, teach-
ers, and special field workers, of capable young
men and women, and even big boys and girls,
in lines of effort of their own accord or under
the direction of social organizations outside
that can be trusted to give such direction. In
fact, a great mistake is often made in organiz-
ing a separate group in competition with, if
not in actual opposition to, like organizations
already in the field that should be strengthened
by strong men and women from the Church,
rather than harassed by their misdirected zeal,
aS is sometimes the case. The Associated
Charities, for instance, or the Children’s So-
ciety, Rescue Mission, Clinic, the Municipal Dis-
pensary, Lodging House, the Day School admin-
istration, Boys’ Club, Chamber of Commerce,
City Clubs for Community Improvement, and

11 Cor. 12.

se
A
er:

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 25

many other like organizations for community
welfare and social betterment, may well be co-
operated with and enriched by the services of
men trained in the Church and Sunday school;
and many cases of need and plans for com-
munity improvement could be delegated to
these organizations and societies.

But in communities where this cannot be
done let there be organized first a group for the
intelligent study of the needs to be met, a care-
ful survey of the membership with respect to
fitness for leadership in the various groups to
be formed to meet specific needs; and, where
proper leaders cannot be secured, it would be
better to wait before organizing until such
leadership as is needed may be trained or other-
wise secured.

Gastronomical appeals should seldom, if ever,
be made for purposes of membership or of
arousing interest. If we must have banquets,
‘‘feeds,’? and suppers, let them be only inci-
dental to the serious work of interesting men
in their fellows. Social organization, there-
fore, must be based upon reasons that appeal
to men, principles that are fundamental to suc-
cessful effort and achievement, and of such
kinds as the various needs require, and so re-
lated to the entire field of social service as to
avoid social friction and economic waste in min-
istering to the social needs of the community.

CHAPTER IIT
SOCIAL MACHINERY AND SOCIAL ENGINEERING

In the last chapter we considered social or-
ganization from the viewpoint of the reasons
for such organization, the principles underly-
ing such organization, the different kinds of
organizations that correspond to the needs in
society, and the relations existing between dif-
ferent kinds of social organizations. It is de-
sirable at this point to consider the practical
phases of social activity by discussing social
machinery and social engineering.

In the ordinary fields of human activity we
are confronted with certain tasks, we are ac-
quainted with the forces about us available for
work, and we therefore invent machinery or
utilize mechanical appliances already invented
to accomplish the work involved in our tasks.
We also discover that better work can be done,
and our tasks accomplished quicker, if we know
how to engineer the forces available and direct
the workers so as to secure the greatest effi-
ciency with the least waste of time and material.
This involves the practical engineer as well as
the one who can work out the technical prob-
lems connected with our work. So in the work

26

—

ee

SOCIAL MACHINERY 27

of the church and its various organizations it
is not sufficient to merely organize a group of
workers for any social task. We must also con-
sider the social forces available, we must also
invent social machinery, and utilize the prac-
tical engineer in directing the workers in the
field as well as discover the technical ability of
the professional leaders in social work.

Not disregarding the achievements in pure
science, we are to-day putting greater emphasis
in education upon applied science, upon those
studies in mechanics and engineering that will
equip men for doing things as well as knowing
things. So in our religious and moral activities,
we do not depreciate the achievements of the
philosophers, the theologians, and the sociolo-
gists in the fields of discovery and organization,
yet to-day we need to place more emphasis upon
the practical tasks of utilizing the social forces
we have discovered, and in keeping men at their
work until achievement for society has been
realized. In religious education we have been
for years drawing out of the treasure house of
knowledge the truths of the Word of God for
human conduct, but for some reason we have
not gotten the results in achievement for the
human race that all this teaching would de-
mand. So we have begun to look to the field of
applied Christianity, with the purpose of in-
venting ways and means of utilizing all these

28 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

forces and splendid energies in the Church and
Sunday school that seem to have in large meas-
ure been going to waste because we have had no
social mechanics through which to make use of
them. And even where we have succeeded in
social invention we have been defeated in our
purpose often from the lack of practical men
to manage the forces in the field. We have
often placed men in responsible positions in
church work not because they were competent
but simply because they wanted the office, or
because we were willing to submit to a majority
vote. In some communities churches and Sun-
day schools have been depleted in ranks not be-
cause there was no machinery and organization,
but because there were no practical leaders
available to do the work required.

Socotra, MacHINERY

By social machinery we mean that which so-
ciety invents or appropriates for the purpose
of making its will effective. It may be a plan
or mode of action involving an individual, or a
group of individuals, or even another organiza-
tion which is subservient to the larger group.
Yor illustration: an agent, delegate, or ambas-
sador is not a vital part of the organization or
society sending him, but simply a part of the
social machinery used to carry on its work. Or,
again, take, for example, the printing office of

SOCIAL MACHINERY 29

the government, with its network of organiza-
tion: it is established, organized, and equipped
for the purpose of printing the matter used in
government business, thus making the will of
the government known to individuals, com-
munities, and responsible groups which com-
pose the nation at large. We may classify
briefly these various agencies and machinery of
society as follows:

1. Civic: such as bureaus, departments, com-
missions, boards, trustees, ete.

2. Military: such as armies and navies, with
their subdivisions and boards, staffs, etc., con-
stabulary, ete.

3. Educational: institutions, school boards,
surveys, research bureaus, institutes, museums,
exhibitions, ete.

4. Religious: churches, institutional boards,
missions, settlements, classes, etc.

5. Industrial and Commercial: transportation
and intercommunication lines, manufactories,
markets, trade centers, etc.

6. Charities and Philanthropies: almshouses,
asylums, dispensaries, hospitals, etc.

7. Correctional Agencies: courts, prisons, re-
formatories, industrial colonies, juvenile courts,
and probation system, etc.

All of these agencies and machinery of so-
ciety are invented or created and utilized by
the group life of the State to make the social

30 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

will effective in carrying out the policies of the
government. Now, the practical question for
us in this connection is, How are we to relate
the millions of men and women, boys and girls
who are in our Sunday schools (and will be
passing through and out into the intricate net-
work of society from generation to generation)
to the tremendous social tasks involved in'the
use of all this machinery. that society has in-
vented and will invent to make its will effective?
How can the Sunday school as an educational
institution apply the knowledge of social or-
ganization and of social machinery, as above
described, to the task of socializing the indi-
viduals we control so far as their moral and
religious instruction is concerned?

It may be assumed at the outset that most of
the adults in the school have gleaned a body of
knowledge from contact with society, as they
are daily a part of it, hence this body of knowl-
edge needs only to be systematized in the mind |
of the student; and to do this the teacher must
be able to give the student the principles and
theory of social organization. He can do this
by the use of text-books or by the ordinary
method of the lecture room. This is the theo-
retical part of the task.

The students are, however, capable of being
organized for social group work, so that they -
may get a practical knowledge of the subject

Fee
—<

SOCIAL MACHINERY 31

under discussion. It is true this will be on a
small scale, but almost all the phases of social
machinery may be demonstrated in this way
among the students in the community life. This
involves also field work under the leadership of
a competent and prudent teacher or helper.
For example: visits may be made to legislative
halls, courtrooms, industrial plants, banks, so-
cial settlements, institutional churches, hos-
pitals, asylums, dispensaries, parks, play-
grounds, country suburbs, etc., where the
organized life of society may be demonstrated
and the working of social machinery observed.
Again, these phases of social activity may be
demonstrated by maps, charts, photographs,
and by getting the workers in these various
fields to visit the class and describe their work
in a personal way.

It is true that some of our social tasks may
involve the invention of new modes of activity,
as, for example, the kindergarten, the Sunday
school and church nursery room, etc.; but most
of our social tasks may be performed by simply
utilizing the machinery already in use by others
or by adapting old methods to new conditions.
There is one fact with respect to social ma-
chinery that is most encouraging: it is that it
has no patents—so we can appropriate it at will.
We sometimes think, however, that what is used
in so-called. ‘‘secular’’ society should, there-

32 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

fore, per se, not be used by a religious in-
stitution. I have no sympathy with that view.
‘<The altar sanctifieth the gift,’’ and one of the
lessons we want to learn quickly in our church
work is not to let the devil have the monopoly
of much of the social machinery available for
doing good in the community.

An old godly shoemaker in a Southern town
was unalterably opposed to the introduction of
an organ in the church where he worshiped.
At last the younger members of the congrega-
tion outnumbered the ‘‘conservatives,’’ and an
organ was purchased. The first Sunday there-
after service was well started by a hymn, ac-
companied by the organ, after which the super-
intendent of the school called on the old brother
to pray. All was quiet. Again the superin-
tendent said: ‘‘Brother B—— will please lead
us in prayer,’’ and to the amusement of the
school and the amazement of the superintend-
ent, Brother B made reply, ‘‘Call on your
machine.’’ The point I wish to make is this:
in the work of social service for the community
the Church and Sunday school do not neces-
sarily need to invent new forms of social ma-
chinery for carrying on such work, but they
can easily and readily utilize the forms of or-
ganization and machinery already worked out
for them in the community, and the great op-
portunity we now have is to give many of these

A=
a:

SOCIAL MACHINERY 33

so-called secular forms a religious significance
by manning them with religious workers.

Socotra ENGINEERING

We mean by this expression the art of
making social machinery move with the least
friction and with the best result in work done.
It is well known that the man who is at the
head of a great construction company is in-
terested in securing men who can manage the
technique of planning a structure and judg-
ing materials. When the great Stadium at
Syracuse University was being constructed I
used to admire greatly the president of the con-
struction company, the architects, and the en-
gineers, who did the planning and the buying of
materials, etc., but no class of men gave me
more inspiration to do big things than those
men we call practical engineers, who kept four
or five hundred men steadily at work on the
job in such an organized way that there was
no loafing and no getting in each other’s way,
while the structure went steadily but surely up
to completion.

Now, in the work of religious social engineer-
ing we need just such men as can get things
done by the use of ordinary men in forms of
constructive work in the community.

T know a church that has succeeded in secur-
ing over five hundred new members in less than

34 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

fifteen months, making in all over a thousand
members, and, on personal investigation, I dis-
covered that it was due not to any new ma-
chinery brought into the church service, nor by:
any startling new methods of work, but simply
by practical engineering of the forces of the
church by a few men, the pastor himself being
the leader. During the winter a few years ago
he found the shops in his district running on
part time, or closed because of the financial de-
pression. He got some of the wealthy men to
volunteer to give practical help to the families
of these shop men, and he thus won many of
them and their families to his church. Again,
the following winter, he wanted to interest the
men of the church in the working men outside
the church, so he codperated with the Young
Men’s Christian Association field-workers and
canvassed his whole district one Sunday for a
big evening service for men, giving them the
main floor of the auditorium, while the gallery
was reserved for the women; and then he se-
cured the strongest speaker for men available,
so that as a result he has to-day the support
and good will of every labor union in that part
of the town, because he has demonstrated to
them that he and his churchmen are interested
in the temporal and spiritual welfare of the
men of the community. Now he has solved the
problem of social engineering. |

¥
SOCIAL ENGINEERING 35

It may be thought by some that we have few
such men and women in our Sunday schools
and churches who know how to do the practical
engineering in the group work of the com-
munity. I think this is not the case. I believe
there are many such if we only knew how to
discover them. A man who is working in the
‘gang’? to-day may be a foreman or practical
engineer to-morrow in the work of construction
in the building trades. So in our church work:
if we know the needs of the work we are under-
taking, and the machinery to be manned, we can
~ often discover the right man in one of our
groups to become a leader or social engineer in
the work of constructive social service in the
church community.

In education emphasis is being placed to-day
upon discovering the aptitudes of the student,
and then directing his education according to
his bent. So in this work of social leadership
we may not hope to succeed by trying to put
all through the same mold. We must recognize,
as did Paul, that there are diversities of gifts,
but the same spirit, and seek to get men and
women into forms of service they can do, and
so direct them that together they may accom-
plish much for the uplift of the whole com-
munity and at the same time develop in the
man a character worthy of any religious test.

Such men will be trained only in the labora-

36 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

tory of human experience, so we must begin by
teaching the boys to work for their fellows.
We can begin with team work in play, until we
get them in later years to stand firm in every
good work for social reform and not shirk even
when the struggle is hard and expensive.

If it is a social service of a political char-
acter, do not put a crank on the job, but some
man who knows something about politics, who
has been in a caucus, who knows how to get
things done in such a-body representing differ-
ing interests. A good illustration of this is the
attempt to organize the forces of the Church in
anti-saloon work. You cannot make a moral
issue a political issue and then hope to succeed
in the campaign as you would in a debating so-
ciety or in a revival meeting. The character of
the task demands political methods (of course
of the right sort). If the task is one of charity
or philanthropy, put a man on the job who
knows how to deal with the case, or who knows
to what institution within the city to refer it.
If it involves financial ability, put a man on the
job who has some notions of finance, and who
knows the value of money. If it is a religious
task, put a man on the job who has gifts of
spiritual insight and whose heart interest is in
that kind of work.

CHAPTER IV
SOCIAL CLASSIFICATION, CLEAVAGE, AND CONFLICT

We have considered thus far in our studies
in the field of social service the meaning and
value of social consciousness in the forming of
public opinion, arousing the social will, and de-
veloping social control; the meaning and prin-
ciples of social organization; and the practical
value of social machinery and social engineer-
ing in carrying on our work in the fields of so-
cial activity. We come now to the considera-
tion of another very important subject which
confronts the social engineer at every turn, and
that is the fact of class consciousness which is
awakened by the facts of social classification,
cleavage, and conflict, which may have been in
the process of formation long before the many
‘become conscious of their presence in society.
Unless the social engineer admits these facts
and studies them, he will often be defeated in
his plans in the practical fields of social reform.

While there is, no doubt, to-day a great deal
of random, meaningless talk about the signifi-
cance of ‘‘the class struggle,’’ ‘‘the class con-
sciousness,’’ ‘‘the caste system,’’ and like terms,
yet there is some serious discussion among

37

38 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

earnest men whose interest in the welfare of
society is unquestioned concerning the mean-
ing and ultimate results of class consciousness
and class conflict in America to-day.’

It will not be possible for us within the limits
of this chapter to go into a full sociological
treatment of the origin of class based upon
facts of race differentiation, or differences
growing out of degrees of vitality, or of per-
sonality. But we will confine our discussion to
some of those more simple and practical dis-
tinctions of class which are based upon some
social advantage gained by the possession of
wealth, culture, skill, leadership, heroism, fam-
ily, pedigree, or royal prerogative.

Soctan CLASSIFICATION

One of the first questions raised is, How are
social classes constituted, and how do class dis-
tinctions arise in any country, especially in a
democracy like our own? I think that all so-
cial classification grows primarily out of the
tasks we have to perform in doing the world’s
work, or the place we fill in society made for us
or by us, and the natural consequences in phys-
ical, mental, moral, and social structure that
follow. ‘‘Class distinction’’ is a term that has
come to represent various classifications of

1See Professor Cooley, ‘Social Organization,” chap. xxi; also
John R. Commons, Publications of American Sociological Society,
vol. ii, 1907, pp. 138ff.

a
8

CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS 39

population within the boundaries of a nation,
State, or community, and has its true basis in
social advantages of the individuals or groups
* with a class consciousness. It is possible to con-
ceive of a time in the history of the human race
when every individual in the struggle for ex-
istence—with the crude weapons which nature
furnished him, or his unfolding mental abilities
could invent, and his unskilled hands could
fashion—was on an equal footing with every
other creature of his own species, just as we
may conceive of a time in the history of the
earth’s surface when everything was at sea
level; for there was no land with hills and
mountain ranges.

From another viewpoint it is possible to con-
ceive of a state of society at some ‘‘millennial
dawn’’? when every man will be again on an
equal footing socially with every other man,
just as we may conceive of some distant day
when this old earth by the process of erosion
and deposit will again be reduced to a dead
level, or, like other dead planets, be reduced to
a condition of absolute death, when there will
be no question of class distinctions because
there will be no one to raise the interrogation.
But when we come to study the actual world
in which we live and move and have our being
we discover natural forces which produce varia-
tion in every aspect that appeals to the human

40 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

senses. In the inorganic world we discover the
variations in configuration of the earth’s sur-
face of rivers, lakes, and oceans, of mountains,
hills, and valleys, and in the quality of soil and
minerals that rib the eternal hills. In the or-
ganic world also we have the innumerable varia-
tions in structure, form, and quality of fauna
and flora that keep the zoologist and the bota-
nist until now busy in making their classifica-
tions. It is not strange, therefore, that in
the world of human associations we should
find variations and classifications of men and
women, the result of the operation of social laws
and forces just as real and effective as those
we have discovered in the inorganic and organic
spheres of nature’s activities—with this marked
difference, however, that here we are dealing
with the element of freedom in personality
which gives a relativity to all class distinctions,
because no barriers are absolutely fixed, for
even the barriers of caste, as in India and in
other countries, have been broken by the force
of Christian brotherhood.

From an economic standpoint many class
distinctions are natural and necessary, for. the
greater part of the world’s work is economi-
cally dependent upon class distinctions. Heco- —
nomically, it is inconvenient for a professional
man, who must always be dressed in suitable
form to receive his clients, to be his own coach-

a=
“2

CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS 41

man and groom his own horse. Likewise it is
inconvenient for his wife to receive callers while
she is busy with domestic duties in the kitchen.
Hence the natural thing is for the professional
man to hire a coachman, and his wife a maid or
cook. So in every sphere of human activity, a
division of labor is necessary from an economic
standpoint, and this tends naturally to fix or
mark off one class from another in conscious-
ness; and yet we can see that all are equally
necessary for the economic and social life of the
- community, and hence from a broader and more
intelligent viewpoint each class should be hon-
ored as a necessary part of the social process.

VarIetIES OF SoctaL CLASSIFICATION

In monarchical governments we generally
speak of four classes of population—the rul-
ing class, the titled class, the gentry, and the
peasants—while in a republic like ours, based
upon ideas of equality, liberty, and fraternity,
there is, theoretically, but one class—‘‘the peo-
ple’’; but as a matter of fact we have at least
three, if not four, general social classes: the
wealthy, élite, or leisure class, which usually in-
cludes those who govern; the middle, or pro-
fessional and employing class, usually owning
more or less property or controlling property
interests; the so-called working class, or labor-
ing class, those who do the manual labor neces-

42 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

gary in the supply of human needs; and a fourth
class, known as the pauper class, who are un-
able to produce for themselves and are depend-
ent upon those who give to their support wholly
or in part. There are still other classifications
that are more general in character, based en-
tirely upon what is termed social standing.
These are sometimes called the upper classes,
the middle classes, and the lower classes. At
other times they are designated the élite and
the common people. From an economic view-
point they are called rich and poor; from an
educational basis, the educated and uneducated,
the learned and the ignorant; from a moral
viewpoint we classify men as good and bad;
from a religious test, as saints and sinners,
believers and unbelievers; from a theological
standpoint we label them as orthodox or het-
erodox.

It is easy to see at a glance without very
much reflection that in the constitution of all
these various social classes there is a quantita-
tive as well as a qualitative element; and if we
go back far enough in the historical evolution
of society, we will find that all classifications
have their basis in property, prowess, or phys-
ical and psychical traits of personality. These
more modern classifications of society are based
upon the same principles, or upon principles
that have been derived from these. This ac-

ae
A
=

CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS 43

counts for the fact, as we shall see later, that in
communities where the caste system or other
artificial distinctions have not already become
fixed the barriers between the various social
classes may be easily crossed, as the individual
may possess or be deficient in these principles
or possessions which entitle him to class dis-
tinction. One proof that such distinctions of
class are more or less artificial and quantitative
is the fact that under the stress of some su-
preme need or sudden danger or fear these
ideas of class distinction for the time being
vanish from consciousness and all seem to be
on a common level—for example, a shipwreck
ora fire. It is, therefore, safe to conclude that
social classifications are largely a matter of the
social class-consciousness, and leisure tends to
emphasize such distinctions in consciousness ;
and, as a rule, those who make the most of such
distinctions are those who lack the wider social
perspective, or do the least of the world’s
work. After all, it is those who flaunt their fur-_
belows in the faces of those who toil that stir
up the greatest amount of hatred or ill feeling
between the social classes of a community.

Factors Wuaicu Give SocraL ADVANTAGE

If we discover that class distinctions are
natural and necessary, and that class conscious-
ness is a fact in society that cannot be ignored,

44, THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

it is a matter of interest to all educational in-
stitutions that have to do with the plastic period
of youth, when social ambitions are ripening
into definite fruits of activity, that they should
take into consideration what are the factors
available in the life of the individual that may
give him social advantage among his fellows in
the realms of social progress.

Among the many factors which give social
advantage may be enumerated the following:

1. Blood relationship, or the status of one’s
family. It is an old saying that ‘‘blood will
tell,’’? and there is nothing which gives greater
advantage in society in many parts of the world
than the fact of being born well. In some com-
munities one’s pedigree or family tree is an
asset which gives him entrance to the highest
social circles. Of course one in this country
of heterogeneous population does not insist on
climbing the family tree too high, lest, as a dis-
tinguished African from the South said, ‘‘he
find an ape up there.’’

2. Wealth. Just as among primitive peoples
property was a mark of social distinction and
a gauge of power in the community, so to-day
wealth has become a social barometer, and fre-
quently those who have the greatest wealth hold
the highest place in the social scale, if we are to
judge from the attention they receive from
their fellows, deserved or undeserved. This

CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS 45

point can be emphasized by reading the guest
list of public functions and state dinners.

3. Culture. In every country the wise and
the cultured have sooner or later gotten to the
top in the social scale, and in no country more
than in the United States is the cultured man,
the educated man, or the man of practical wis-
dom thought more of and respected more by
all classes of society. Hence next to wealth,
culture or learning gives one social prestige.
We see this illustrated again and again in the
eareer of the American student. Coming, as
he often does, from the homes of those who
struggle for existence, and do the hard labor
of the world’s work, after passing through the
school, the academy, the college, or the univer-
sity, he has usually won a position in the social
scale which gives him the hope and the ambi-
tion, if not the actual ability, to attain to the
highest positions in social standing in the com-
munity where he lives.

4. Position or profession. In America posi-
tion, or profession, such as governments offer,
or the management of some great industrial or
commercial enterprise, or the profession of
teaching, of preaching, of the law, or of medi-
cine, gives social advantage. Here, as in all
other factors, character counts for more than
the mere position or profession. The time has
come when society rewards a man not by virtue

46 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

of his office, or the cloth he wears, but by the
character of the service he renders to society.

5. Leadership. The ability to take the lead
in any movement among any body of men, as
illustrated in military circles in the army and
in the navy, in political life, as well as in the
field of athletic sports. In America many a
man of humble origin, like the immortal Lin-
coln, has won his place in the hall of fame and
in the highest circles of society by the genius
of leadership in all these fields of human en-
deavor.

6. Skill or inventive genius. The ability to
do something that no one else can do, whether
it be in the field of diplomacy, in statecraft, in
invention, navigation, engineering, or as an
‘‘Tndian’’ scout.

7. Heroism. The man who dares to take his
life in his hand for the rescue of his fellow man,
or who does some daring deed for the good of
the State, or the safety of the fatherland, wins
social advantage though he may have been
reared in the lowest circles of society.

8. Vicarious service. The man or woman
who gives up social opportunities for the sake
of service to others, like the missionary, the
physician, and the nurse, has always won a
place in the social esteem of his or her country-
men, though sometimes the coronation has been
too long delayed. John Wesley, Florence Night-

=
a

CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS 47

ingale, and Bishops William Taylor and James
Thoburn furnish us splendid examples.

These are some of the more important fac-
tors that give social advantage, but there is a
growing social consciousness in every com-
munity that includes the humbler factors of
everyday tasks well performed. So we are com-
ing to see that anyone who does a requisite part
of the work necessary for the health, happiness,
and safety of the community has won the right
to our respect and social esteem, whether he sit
in the office of state, the professional chair,
whether he stand in the place of the captain of
industry, the captain of the ship, or the cap-
tain of the army, or whether he be the humble
citizen doing his daily tasks as the scavenger of
the city, the stoker of the boilers, or the private
in the commissariat. All are doing a part of
the work of the world which makes our social
progress possible, and should, therefore, have
a share of the social honors and esteem that we
have to offer as a reward.

The Sunday school and other institutions of
the Christian Church are doing a great service
in keeping open the doors of opportunity that
lead to social progress, and nothing will con-
tribute more to the effectiveness of that service
than the knowledge of what really constitutes
social classes and what are some of the factors
that give social advantage.

48 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

SoctaL CLEAVAGE

When we use this term with reference to so-
ciety we do not mean for the reader to infer
that we believe society to be inorganic, and sub-
ject to the laws of cleavage as the term is used
in geology. It is only in an analogical sense
that we consider society as capable of being
split up into groups or structures in the same
way as one would split a rock for building pur-
poses. It is true that in race differentiation and
in countries where castes are formed we have a
stratification of society almost as marked as
that in the earth’s structure; but in modern so-
ciety among progressive peoples, especially
under democratic forms of government, we
have no such barriers that exclude one class
from another, and yet we have that principle
of social differentiation at work that makes
progress and nation-building possible. 'This we
call social cleavage. You may have a rock mass
that is of little use in its present form and po-
sition, but by understanding its lines of cleav-
age you may utilize it in structure building in
any place or in any form most desirable and
most useful. So with a population mass; it
seems to us sometimes a useless incumbrance
in the savage group, the teeming wretches of
the caste, or the threatening movement of the
mob; but when we understand how men may.

a=

CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS 49

be organized and grouped in codperative en-
deavor, and in sympathetic altruistic service
for the good of each in society, we see how it ~
ean be utilized for the good of the community.
While the actual lines of social cleavage may,
not be visible to the unthinking in a population
group, yet they are there just as surely as in
the rock mass from which we shape the blocks
of the granite or marble that make up our noble
structures. We can observe this in a new set-
tlement; out of the population mass there de-
velops organized and orderly society because
the possibilities of social cleavage were present
in the population mass.

I wish it understood at the outset that social
cleavage, in itself, is not an evil, as many would
suppose, but a good to society if intelligently
utilized by social leadership. The real difficulty
in society is not in the fact of social cleavage
and social organization, but, rather, in social
friction and social conflict. To make use of the
analogy a little further: We find that the lines
of cleavage and the utility of a rock mass de-
pend upon the process of rock formation—
the way the structural units were put together.
So in society, the utility of social cleavage de-
‘pends upon the social process by which the in-
dividuals of a population mass are related to
each other in the development of society itself.
If men are taught from birth to despise the

50 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

members of another group, as under the caste
system, then it will be almost impossible to de-
velop an organized democratic government and
society among them. If men of any country are
taught from childhood to consider themselves
as members of a ‘‘class,’’ and to despise as ene-
mies those below them in the scale of life, then
it will be impossible to avoid social friction,
class hatred, and class conflict. Social cleavage
is thus changed to social stratification, and we
get as a result social barriers set up between
classes, because class consciousness has de-
veloped faster than social consciousness. These
facts give to the Church and Sunday school an
unusual educational opportunity; for, as we
shall see later in the discussion, Christian edu-
cation is the only force that can develop a so-
cial consciousness in the individual and in the
group that will be able intelligently to make
use of the great law of social cleavage in de-
veloping the ideal society.

Soctan BARRIERS

When we speak of social barriers between
various groups of population it is only in a
metaphorical sense that we use the term, for
the life of the community is a whole that can-
not be regarded as actually set off by fences or
walls. It would be nearer the truth if we spoke
of these barriers as terraced, for we find it very

A=
-—=

CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS BL

easy to slip from one social plane to another,
as it is possible by ambition and energy to
ascend.

Of course in a country like India, where the
caste system has long been established and
recognized, these barriers seem absolutely fixed
for life—as absolute as that gulf between Dives
and Lazarus; and to some extent in a monarchy
these barriers are more or less fixed between
the ruling class and the titled classes, and those
beneath them in the social scale, yet it is quite
possible in a constitutional monarchy for dynas-
ties to change, or be set aside, and for a man
to rise from the peasant to the ruling class.
But in a republic, such as our own, these bar-
riers are in no sense fixed as yet, these terraced
walls may be scaled by the ambitious when
righteous endeavor is persisted in, or when the
gracious hand of inheritance is reached down
to help one up, so that it is not unusual in this
country for young men and young women to
rise from the humblest circles of the struggling
masses to the highest positions of social dis-
tinction among the truly élite. On the other
hand, it is equally true that the man who does
not rightly appreciate the position that he holds
by inheritance, or has reached by endeavor, may
easily slip to the bottom of the social scale, and.
even lower, into the very pit of the depraved,
by social sinning.

52 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

It frequently occurs in modern American so-
ciety that many families through financial suc-
cess are prematurely placed in social positions
for which they are by education and training
unfitted, and hence they are an embarrassment
to themselves as well as to their associates, and
such have won for themselves the title of the
““noor rich.’? Some of them rightfully deserve
such a title, because they usually advertise the
fact by the loudness of their dress as well as
by the boisterousness of their speech. On the
other hand, there are those in every community
who are well born, well bred, and truly cultured
who, through struggle, misfortune, or circum-
stances over which they have no control, are
living on the verge of need, and whom we right-
fully designate as the ‘‘rich poor,’’ and in a
more scientific classification we could number
them among the truly élite.

We find, therefore, that social cleavage
based upon natural distinctions among men is
a good, and makes social progress possible,
while artificial distinctions tend to social strati-
fication, and are a drag to progress, and usually
result in social upheavals, cataclysms, and so-
cial revolution.

Socran ConFuict

Social conflict takes place in society after so-
cial groups have been formed, and is not an

a=
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CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS 53

unmixed evil, for it may result in social prog-
ress. In fact, some sociologists have based
their theory of society upon this principle. It
is claimed that conflict either results in con-
quest, thus giving the stronger a better chance,
or it results in a combination of smaller and
weaker groups against the strong until we
reach the struggle of equals, which must ulti-
mately end in toleration; and when equals come
to tolerate each other they are not long in de-
veloping a consciousness of kind that will re-
sult in sympathy, and later in pleasurable as-
sociation. So there exists the hope that conflict
between nations will ultimately result in the
federation of the world and the brotherhood of
man. But in the process there is the enormous
waste of life and substance, and men are asking
seriously if there is not some other and better
way to reach this supreme goal of society which
Christianity has contributed to the world as a
workable program. Why do we still have social
conflict? We think of the wars of history and
of the present, of race antagonisms and class
conflicts between groups of the same race—
actual warfare, which we name in milder terms,
such as strikes, boycotts, lockouts, struggles
between organized and unorganized labor, be-
tween organized employers, organized em-
ployees, competition as destructive of values
1Gumplowitz, ‘“Der Rasenkampf.”

54 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

in many instances as war or fire or famine.
On the other hand, we see groups in conflict be-
cause of the moral struggle involved and the
moral values that are at stake—conflicts of re-
ligious groups for the doctrines they hold as
essential to salvation. Why all this? we may
ask. Is there no better way? It is easy to give
a philosophical answer, but it is quite another
thing to solve the actual problem.

The reason is largely one of consciousness.
One of the chief causes of social conflict is the
fact that we develop class consciousness faster
than we do social sympathy, or what I term the
true social consciousness, that takes account of
moral obligations and responsibilities for the
other group whether strong or weak. A second
cause of social conflict is the passion in the hu-
man heart for social justice. Now, the two go
together; so long as you have class conscious-
ness you will have social injustice; and social
conflict is the result. But, on the other hand,
the passion for social justice develops the social
consciousness by seeking to help the weak and
defend the good, and hence the tendency is for
groups to develop a wider reaching social con-
sciousness until codperation has displaced con-
flict and peaceful relations result.

Now, this seems to leave us in a sort of
dilemma as to how we are going to succeed in
maintaining peace in orderly, progressive so-

aS

ss

CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS 55

ciety. It is just here that I wish to put em-
phasis upon Christian education in the Church
and Sunday school as the chief factor in the
solution of this perplexing problem of to-day.

Curistian EpucatTion anpD Society

One of the best examples of the development
of social cleavage of the right sort is to be found
in our educational system in the United States,
and especially in a college, high school, or a
graded and progressive Sunday school. Here
we have the graded system that tends to sepa-
rate the pupils in class-conscious groups, while
at the same time there is developed what we
call ‘‘college spirit’’ that unites all in one larger
group, or the denominational spirit that unites
all the various groups of one Sunday school and
church into a conscious social group of larger
dimensions.

The evil result in the history of Christian
education under denominationalism has been
the tendency to denominational caste, or re-
ligious social stratification, so that instead of
being a help to religious progress it has been
a fruitful source of religious strife, intoler-
ance, and bigotry. But in modern times the
spirit of brotherhood and federation seems
to have well-nigh removed all the barriers;
so that it is a common thing to-day to see
the members of the various denominations

56 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

yoked together in the band of volunteers
for the evangelization of the world. Here, then,
it seems to me, is the supreme opportunity of
the Church and Sunday school—to instruct
the millions of the most susceptible youth of
our generation so that they may see the value
of social cleavage as a part of the social process,
and at the same time be taught the meaning of
social justice that requires of them enlistment
in the warfare against organized vice and sin
and crime; and, further, they should be given
that view of society that will enable them to see
the obligations we bear to one another in the
great social fabric of which we are but a part,
a social consciousness that will overcome class
consciousness and lead them to see the rights of
others in the fields of opportunity.

Much of the conflict in society to-day is the
result of inadequate notions of honor in social
service. If men could be led to see the dignity
of toil wherever honestly expended for the pub-
lie weal, they would be so moved by the sense
of justice that every man who does a necessary
part of the work that contributes to the life,
health, and happiness of society would receive
not only his rightful due of the honors society
bestows, but would receive also a larger share
of the profits of social production.

The evils in society will never be removed by
simply crying down the conflicts that may be

a

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CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS 57

oaly a result and not a cause, when the real task
we have to perform is the removal of the causes
of these results we so vigorously decry. The
industrial problems of to-day will never be
solved by running down organized labor, nor
by abusing the organizations of capital, but,
rather, by giving to all men the facts that will
arouse their innate sense of justice, and lead
them to deal justly with their fellows. But you
ask, ‘‘How can this be done?”’ It is not so diffi-
cult as it seems, for we are apt to become dis-
couraged at the bigness of a task because we
see it as a whole, when, as a matter of fact, our
part in the process of performance may be but
a simple part of it all. For example, tell your
class on Sunday not only the precepts of Jesus
that bear upon the theme, but tell them also of
some concrete case you know of in your own
community. Tell the city boy how the farmer
boy must go without many good things because
the unscrupulous commission man cheated his
father out of nearly all the profits of his sea-
son’s toil in raising his crop for market; or tell
the boy in the country how some poor man in
the city was robbed of his property by some
unscrupulous ‘‘loan shark’? when he was in
- need, because he was unable to. push his case
with any hope of success in the courts. Take
your class for an outing and show them the
actual groups of living human beings that

58 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

make possible social classification, cleavage, and
conflict. In fact, when we come to look about
us, the easiest task we have in the Sunday school
and in the day school and college is to give the
student a concrete example of what we mean
by our words. It is not easy, however, unless
the teacher himself knows what the facts are,
and the reason he does not know them is not
because the facts are hidden, but because he has
not trained himself to discover and to remem-
ber them.

Jesus’s life and method were successful be-
cause he lived with the people the things he
was constantly teaching them. The teacher
and the social leader in every field will succeed
likewise when he learns to teach others by self-
mastery of the truths he wishes to impart.

There are a number of interesting problems
that would logically come under this heading
for discussion, such as race prejudice, the Negro
problem in America, the labor problem, pauper-
ism, and the like, but we defer them until later.
It is possible in such discussion as this to ignore
the value of the individual as a factor in so-
ciety, so in our next chapter we will consider
the social efficiency of the individual.

CHAPTER V
THE SOCIAL EFFICIENCY OF THE INDIVIDUAL

We pointed out in the last chapter how it
was possible for us in the discussion of social
classification, cleavage, and conflict to ignore
the value of the individual as a factor in so-
ciety. We therefore take up in this chapter the
topic of the ‘‘Social Efficiency of the Indi-
vidual.’’ .

Some time ago a student in one of our lead-
ing universities wrote me a letter of inquiry con-
cerning several practical problems in current
sociological discussion. Among other things it
was asked if it were not true that to-day em-
phasis is being placed upon the endeavor to
recover the great man in society rather than
upon the questions of the mass, or the power
of environment. In replying to this question I
said, among other things, that it is true we are
looking to-day for the great man in society, but
it is also true that we measure him, neverthe-
less, in terms of social value, and that his effi-
ciency in society as an individual always de-
pends upon the fact that he has in some way
achieved social esteem by the service he has ren-
dered to society; and this service is possible of

59

60 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

achievement because he has developed a social
consciousnss in advance of the social conscious-
ness of his fellows representing the group, and
also because his will is controlled by social mo-
tives rather than by selfish ones, and, further,
because such a man is in a real sense the prod-
uct of his age, and the society he serves, plus
that element of personality which we decivaan
as freedom of the will, self-determination, or
the power of initiative.

In this day of fads in social discussion, and
in social legislation and social organization, of
socialistic theories, of socialistic parties in
politics, one is apt to become bewildered, and
from the viewpoint of the individual is apt to
ask: ‘‘Who’s who?’? and ‘‘What’s what?”
‘‘What is the individual, anyway?’’ I propose,
therefore, in this discussion to state certain
fundamental questions concerning the efficiency
of the individual in society ; to give certain cate-
gorical answers to those questions, to give an
explanation of my answers, and to show, in con-
clusion, how the Church and Sunday school and
other religious social agencies may develop the
social efficiency sought in the individuals com-
ing under their instruction.

(QUESTIONS

1. What is the individual ‘‘socius,’’ or the
individual as we find him in society?

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SOCIAL EFFICIENCY OF INDIVIDUALS 61

2. What is social efficiency in the individual?

3. What are the elements of such efficiency in
the character of such an individual?

4, What are the factors that give the indi-

vidual in society such elements of character?

The answers to these questions will furnish
us not only with useful knowledge with respect
to the members of a social group but will also
furnish us a program by which we, as preachers
and teachers, may do effective work in making
society better through our influence upon the
individuals, and the social groups as well, that
come under our instruction.

ANSWERS

It will serve our purpose better to give first
a simple categorical answer to each of the ques-
tions just given above, and then to give a more
extended meaning of the terms employed in
these answers.

1. In reply to the first question I would say,
as follows: The individual ‘‘socius’’ is the
product of heredity (used in its broadest sense)
and environment plus personality.

2. By social efficiency we mean the ability of
the individual in society to express himself by
activities that may be measured in terms of
social values.

3. The elements of character of such an effi-
cient individual are those physical and psy-

62 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

chical abilities which win for him the highest
social esteem and enable him to perform for
society the greatest good.

4. The factors that produce such elements of
character are those physical or psychical forces
and powers available in the life of the individual
for his highest development and use.

For the most of my intelligent readers this
would be sufficient, merely to state the ques-
tions and answers as above, and leave it to the
reader to work out in detail their meaning. But
words and terms do not always have the same
content and meaning for the different individ-
uals using them, so we deem it necessary to give
some words of explanation, which we hope will
lend additional interest to the subject under
consideration.

EXXPLANATIONS

1. When we behold a great man in society,
majestic in his proportions, it is not a sufficient
answer to the inquiring mind to say, ‘‘Thou
hast made him a little lower than God and
crowned him with glory and honor’’; we want
to know something of the process by which such
characters are produced. It is not enough to
simply say, ‘‘God made him great,’’ for we want
to discover some of the agencies that have been
used in the process, and know our relation to
them, if we are to be coworkers with God in the

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SOCIAL EFFICIENCY OF INDIVIDUALS 63

molding and fashioning of human character.
Even when we see a thoroughbred horse or a
good cow with a record we want to know some-
thing of how they get the breed. The taunt of
Cassius to Brutus concerning Cesar may be-
come for us a method of serious inquiry when
we consider the greatness of a Moses, a Paul, a
Lincoln, or of any other great man of the pres-
ent who is doing great things for humanity.
We should know upon what meat they feed, that
they have grown so great, in order that we may
be most effective in the service we can render
for human betterment.

If the individual is a product of society
through the forces of heredity, environment,
and of personal freedom, it is, therefore, of the
utmost importance that we know the laws of
heredity in the transmission, from parent to
offspring, of physical, psychical, and moral
traits that shall vitally affect the efficiency of
the adult life. We should know also the great
social laws of environing conditions repre-
sented by the terms ‘‘imitation,’’ ‘‘opposition,”’
and ‘‘adaptation,’’ and our power to control
them through education! We should also
understand the range and limitations of per-
sonal choice and the power of initiative and
self-control. We are just beginning to learn

1 For a fuller explanation, see “Social Aspects of Religious Insti-
tutions,” by Edwin L. Earp, pp. 5-7.

64 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

how social man really is in his entire make-up.
If you isolate him from society, he soon loses
his reason, as is shown by imprisonment in soli-
tary confinement, and in employment like the
isolated lighthouse tending, where now they
place two together to avoid insanity, and it is
said that even this social circle is so small that
both are apt to become insane.’ It is also
shown in the study of suicide. Professor Ross
says: ‘‘Few commit suicide from physical an-
guish, from pain, cold, or hunger. A man is
more likely to renounce life when some catas-
trophe happens to the image of himself he is
accustomed to see in the eyes of others.’’...
‘Again, there is nothing like social relations
to keep down suicide. Isolated, the individual
who meets with shipwreck lets go of life; knit
up with others, he is supported by sympathy
and encouragement, and hangs on.’ Again,
the fact is shown from records that from three
to five times as many single as married per-
sons commit suicide. No individual of real value
is isolated from society. Even the ‘‘wild man
of Borneo,’’ of whom the college students some-
times sing, is a rare exception, and the fact that
he ‘‘has just come to town”’ is proof that even
he is not entirely devoid of social instincts.

1See Publications of the American Sociological Society, vol. i,
1906, Discussion by Mrs. Gilman.
2See op. cit., p. 102.

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SOCIAL EFFICIENCY OF INDIVIDUALS 65

2. In explaining our second proposition—that
social efficiency is the ability of the individual
“<socius’’ to express himself by activities which
are measured in terms of social values—we are
not interested, especially, in all the phases of
human activity covered by this definition, but,
rather, with that kind of social efficiency that
may be measured in terms of moral, spiritual,
and economic advantage to society—whether
expressed in a qualitative or quantitative way.
Now, it must be understood at the outset that
society is not always conscious of such ability,
nor does it always measure it contempora-
neously with the life of the individual possess-
ing and expressing it. For example, take the
life of Jesus. It is growing in social estimate
with every century, and men like the writers of
the American Constitution, or Abraham Lin-
coln, receive more social esteem. to-day than
ever before, because society is more and more
conscious of the social value of their deeds. So
with the religious reformers like Savonarola,
Calvin, Luther, Knox, the Wesleys, and the
missionary pioneers of every century. It is
difficult to determine the exact degree of in-
dividual social efficiency when questions of
honor and social standing are raised. Yor il-
lustration, take the life of the stoker on a battle-
ship as compared with that of the captain on
the bridge, the skilled workman as compared

66 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

with the contractor or archiect, the worth of the
city scavengers to the health and happiness of
the people as compared with the work of the
sanitary officers, the mayor and aldermen of the
city government. No one can determine off-
hand the relative value of the activities of such
men without considering all the factors in the
process of keeping the city well governed, or
the battleship in efficient service, or the build-
ing complete for the uses for which it was de-
signed and erected. The ability of any indi-
vidual to serve his age lies in reality in the fact
of his possessing, in some measure at least, a
social consciousness. Without it he may do the
directed work of society that may be of im-
portance, but he will be in no sense a leader
without it. It is not alone in what the initial
activity is in itself, but, rather, in the cumula-
tive and multiple effect, by wise social direction,
upon the activities of others that we are to find
the social worth of the individual. In other
words, a man’s social efficiency consists not
alone in what he can do himself directly for so-
ciety, but also in what he can get others as in-
dividuals and organized groups to do for the
good of society at large. Such efficiency of the
individual is ideal when every act, consciously
or unconsciously, contributes to the good of
self, offspring, and society as a whole.
Another fact must not be overlooked. The

Sant
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SOCIAL EFFICIENCY OF INDIVIDUALS 67

individual to receive the highest social estimate
of worth must have the esteem of his fellows as
well as ability if he would be most efficient in
service to society. We could name men living
to-day who have rendered able service to so-
ciety and possess ability, but who could not, if
they desired, render the same service to society
because they have lost the esteem of the people
at large. We have seen in every community,
especially in church and Sunday school work,
persons possessing ability, yet lacking in the
confidence of the people; like a pretty, noble-
looking horse my father owned once that could
pull a mighty load on occasions, but would in-
variably balk on a hill when you needed him
most. We could never depend upon him—he
was worthless for team work.

3. In reference to our third proposition.
Here we are more specific in stating the ele-
ments of character of such an individual as we
are considering—his physical and psychical
abilities. When we consider some of the great
men who have done the greatest things for hu-
manity we find that most of them were men of
physical endurance as well of psychical pre-
eminence. Moses, while a student in Egypt,
was athletic enough to do to death a brutal
Egyptian taskmaster and brickmaker, and when
one hundred and twenty years of age he was a
mountain climber with an eye like the eagle’s,

68 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

undimmed. Paul, in spite of his ‘‘thorn in the
flesh,’’? was able to stand beatings with rods,
contentions with beasts, shipwreck at sea, and
when cast out of the city for dead upon the rub-
bish heap, he got up and went to preaching
again the same day. John Wesley, after stand-
ing the scoldings and physical violence of a
termagant, could rise at four in the morning,
preach from four to six times a day, and write
on an average a book a week. Abraham Lincoln
could in his youth split rails all day on a diet of
salt pork and hominy, and our active ex-Presi-
dent Theodore Roosevelt, warrior, statesman,
reformer, writer, and peacemaker, could never
accomplish his great tasks for the good of hu-
manity if he had not a splendid physique made
rugged by strenuous activity in the saddle, on
the chase, and on the tennis court. But apart
from these physical elements of character, there
must be those psychical abilities that give in-
tellectual grasp of social problems, and control
of social forces, that can formulate plans, or-
ganize campaigns, and direct great governmen-
tal policies; tactfulness and skill in managing
men so as to avoid discord and social friction.

4. In explaining our fourth proposition—the
factors that give the individual such elements
of character and ability—it remains for us sim-
ply to enumerate some of the physical and
psychical forces and powers that are available

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SOCIAL EFFICIENCY OF INDIVIDUALS 69

in the life of the individual for his highest de-
velopment and social efficiency. The physical
factors, such as light, heat, electricity, radio-
activity, and gravity; the psychical factors,
such as love, anger, sympathy, codperation, and
consciousness of kind, when related intelligently
to the human will in society, are sources of
energy that may be put to social uses. But
added to these are those physical and psychical
powers represented in the products of applied
science, and by the men and organizations about
us in human society; and also the spiritual
powers available to the man of prayer, and to
the needy before they cry, all come within the
range of individual activity, and may be so con-
trolled and directed by the human will as to
make the individual a social factor of the great-
est efficiency. When we say available in the life
of the individual ‘‘socius,’’ we, of course, mean
only in a relative sense, for no physical, psy-
chical, or spiritual force or power is available
to the man who is without the knowledge of
them or their uses. When we look over the
great field of human struggle and endeavor we
find many things to encourage us, but there are
also many discouragements in vast numbers of
individuals and individual groups that are not
only without social efficiency, but are, on the
contrary, a drag to social progress. We see
men who mean well, but do blundering things;

70 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

others who know better, but lack the will to do.
It remains for us to consider how this efficiency
is to be utilized in the various fields of human
need, and the part the Church and Sunday
school may perform in bringing these facts to
the knowledge of the thousands of our young
people who may become socially efficient in
carrying on the world’s work to-morrow.

It remains for us to show that the subject is
an educational problem and how the Sunday
school and Church may cooperate with other
educational institutions in the development of
the individual for efficiency in specific fields of
social service, and how this efficiency can be
utilized in the various fields of human need.

An EpucationaL PRoBLEM

From our viewpoint the individual is not
educated when he leaves the school or college
with a certain amount of knowledge about
himself and the things about him, but, rather,
when he has become related to the actual life
of society in a vital way by being able to do
things through the utilization of the forces
and powers physical and social over which he
has control. Mr. James P. Monroe stated the
case in a very forceful way in the opening ad-
dress before the Social Education Congress in
Tremont Temple, Boston, November 30, 1906,
in answering the question as to what social edu-

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‘ SOCIAL EFFICIENCY OF INDIVIDUALS 71

cation really is. He said: ‘‘Emphatically, it is
not mere book-learning. It must of necessity
involve also hand-learning (or manual skill),
bread-and-butter-learning (or industrial effi-
ciency), head-learning (or what we Yankees call
‘gumption’), discipline-learning (or self-con-
trol), leadership-learning (or executive ability),
fellowship-learning (or good citizenship), and,
above all, ethical learning (or fundamental mo-
rality). Social education does not permit a
youth to drift into an occupation; it fits him
for some industry best suited to his powers.
Social education does not leave a boy to pick
up his ideas of citizenship from barrooms
and ward heelers; it organizes every com-
munity into a local town meeting, to teach
and foster real self-government. Social educa-
tion does not place the family on one side and
the school on the other, competing for author-
ity ; it leads the school to understand the family
and the family to understand the school, so that
each may encourage, strengthen, and supple-
ment the other. Social education does not
ignore foul sanitary conditions, does not shut
its eyes to known moral evils; it insists that the
first duty of the school is to establish a sound
body and a wholesome mind. Finally, social
education does not let the bugbear of sectarian-
ism stand in the way of leading every school-
child into the presence of Almighty God. And

72 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

these pressing, these insistent, these life-and-
death problems of making every boy and girl—
physically, mentally, industrially, socially, and
morally—into the best man or woman possible,
are not the business of the teacher alone, are
not academic questions to be discussed in doc-
tors’ theses. They are your business and mine,
to be seriously undertaken here and now.
Never before were youth so well trained men-
tally as they are at present; but seldom before
have they been so ill prepared socially as they
find themselves to-day.’’*

From these statements in answer to what
social education is, we observe that the devel-
opment of the socially efficient individual in-
volves not only the theoretical training of
the schools, but also the actual utilization of the
forces and powers available in the life of the
individual in relation to all the factors of
the community life; it involves doing things as
well as knowing things.

Soctan Erricrency UTILIzEp

When we come to study the lives of those who
have done things that have amounted to some-
thing for society, we find that most of them have
been devoted to some specific field of social serv-
ice, and that back of it all was an earnest moral
purpose which received its initial impulse, in

1 See Social Educational Quarterly, for March, 1907, p. 3.

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SOCIAL EFFICIENCY OF INDIVIDUALS ‘7%

most cases, from the teachings of religious
truths as expressed in the Bible, and in the lives
of men who were directed by the Spirit of the
Master. Social efficiency as we have defined it
may be utilized:

1. In the field of government—in city, State,
and nation. Men have not always been found
capable when tasks of government were thrust
upon them by custom of hereditary rulership,
or by the whims of popular suffrage, because
they had not been socially trained for such
tasks. Men have often utilized their powers in
governing in the interests of themselves and
their friends or business associates rather than
in the interests of all the people, and especially
the oppressed, who most needed their sympathy
and help. We have seen examples of this in
republics as well as in monarchies and despot-
isms, in modern cities as well as in those of
medieval times. There is no field that offers
the individual, socially trained, a greater oppor-
tunity for service than the modern American
city. There is no field of government where
social efficiency is more in need.

2. In legislation and administration. Many
of our laws have become obsolete, or have been
declared unconstitutional, or have been dis-
obeyed or denounced as unjust, because men in
legislative halls have not considered the social
import of lawmaking, and have enacted meas-

74 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

ures by majority vote in the interests of a class,
a corporation, or an individual. Also in the
administration of the law decisions have been
made by a jury under the intimidation of the
crowd, or by a judge who did not have the sense
of social justice and responsibility. Not only
must the lawmaker be educated to see the good
of society, and be free from the bribes of the
lobbyist, but also the executors of the law must
be men with a developed social consciousness
that will enable them to render social justice
impartially.

3. In the fields of industry. Men may utilize
their social efficiency in the fields of industry.
Here men must be educated socially for the
tasks of managing men and directing great in-
dustrial and commercial enterprises and con-
cerns in the interests of society at large, which
will give to them the best personal returns as a
reward, for the public will not begrudge the
individual even vast accumulations of wealth
when they have been achieved by enterprises
conducted in the interests of the community and
society as a whole. Leaders of organized labor
must also be men who comprehend the relations
of labor to capital, and of both to the great pub-
lic who use the goods produced for the market
by industrial concerns. In recent years we have
witnessed the utilization of the social efficiency
of the individual in this field as never before in

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SOCIAL EFFICIENCY OF INDIVIDUALS 75

the cases of men who by their power of social
perspective have averted industrial warfare by
wise counsels and by directing others in the
pursuits of peace.

4. In the fields of religious activity. Here we
need men educated for the social tasks of the
evangelization of the masses of the world’s
population both in the home and foreign fields,
and in directing the policies of the great or-
ganized movements for ministering to the
spiritual needs of mankind. We see some ex-
cellent illustrations of this fact in the states-
manship of some of our bishops in the home
and foreign fields, and the secretaries of our
foreign and home departments of missionary
work, as well as in the splendid program of the
secretaries of the Young Men’s Christian Asso-
ciation.

5. In the management of organized charity
and philanthropy. Never before were there
evident so many great gifts and foundations
for the betterment and welfare of the depend-
ent, defective, and delinquent classes. Our
educational institutions must furnish the men
and women socially trained to carry out the
purpose of these foundations in such a way that
the problems of poverty may be solved rather
than made more difficult by the very methods
adopted for their solution. It took a century
for England to repeal the poor laws that were

76 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

increasing the pauperism they were meant to
remove. ‘To-day some of our charitable institu-
tions are managed by men and women who have
so little knowledge of real charity that they
would rather read an enlarged monthly statis-
tical report of cases treated than present a
statesmanlike program for curing some of the
ills for which the institutions were founded.

6. In our educational institutions. Here, as
in no other field, we need men so trained with
a social perspective and insight that they may
adequately direct the educational forces in
every community, State, and nation that en-
lightenment and culture may become universal,
and international peace, comity, and good will
become permanent possessions of humanity as
a basis for yet undreamed-of stages of progress.

Wuat tHe Cuurcu Can Do

It may be asked how the Church ean co-
operate with other institutions in this educa-
tional problem of developing socially efficient
individuals. In response to this inquiry I
would reply as follows: In the first place, the
Sunday school and Church, taking the child at
the most plastic period of its life, can in a large
measure sweeten the fountains of heredity by
sanely and judiciously directing the child’s
mind with respect to the responsibilities of mar-
riage and parenthood. As a matter of fact,

<=.

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SOCIAL EFFICIENCY OF INDIVIDUALS 77

from a long experience in Sunday school work
in many different parts of the country and in
many individual churches, I do not remember
to have heard anything very definite and en-
lightening on the subject of heredity or the
responsibilities of marriage in any class of
whatever grade I have attended. I do not
claim that this is the experience of others, but
it indicates that a great opportunity is lost on
many a young man or woman by the Sunday
school in this most important subject of hu-
man concern.

The Sunday school can do much to control
the forces of environment in the development
of child life, and thus have much to do with this
most important factor of individual social effi-
ciency. Some social workers of long experience
claim that environment is about nine tenths of
destiny. We know from the actual facts in the
treatment of orphans and neglected children
that it is at least eighty-five per cent of the
battle for good citizenship and good health.
The Sunday school can also bring to bear upon
the perscnality of the child the spiritual forces
at the command of the Church. It can teach the
individual how to link himself with God through
meditation and prayer, so that one shall chase
a thousand and two shall put ten thousand to
flight. Thus we see that in the development of
the ‘‘socius’’—whom we defined as the product

78 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

of heredity and environment plus personality,
the Sunday school may play a most effective
part in the directing of these three factors in
the life of the individual in society.

In the second place, the Church and Sunday
school can discover to the individual the forces
and powers available in his life and capable of
being utilized by him in the performance of so-
cial tasks when the proper training has been
secured. I do not claim that the Church is to
push its educational work to the point of labora-
tories, and drill grounds, and proving stations
for the training of all the youth within her
grasp, for this may be well done by institutions
that are not devoid of Christian motive; but I
mean to say that in every Sunday school com-
munity it is possible for the teacher to show
the student examples of the socially efficient
individual, and point out many, if not all, the
factors that had to do with the making of such a
man of worth to society. The stories of Moses
and of Joshua, of Samuel and of David—men
of the highest social efficiency in their day—can
be related in a few minutes toa class of intelli-
gent boys. So with the lives of many great men
of history and with men who are living to-day
in the esteem of the nation and of the world at
large. The factors in their life processes may
be related in an hour, and some of them could be
made.a profitable study for a series of lessons.

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SOCIAL EFFICIENCY OF INDIVIDUALS 79

In relating to a class of boys the reasons for the
social estimate of Israel upon men like Samson
and Gideon, it should not be forgotten that
there are equally good reasons for the social
estimate of the American people upon the life
of a William McKinley or a Grover Cleveland,
and that there are men living whose lives in the
making are as simple as the story of Moses or
Gideon. But even the physical forces and
powers, as well as the social forces and groups,
at the command of the individual to-day may be
brought within the range of the Sunday school
work in illustrating the topic under discussion.

In the third place, the Church and Sunday
school can furnish the religious and ethical mo-
tive that will give quality to the life of the in-
dividual upon whom society will put the highest
estimate of efficiency. A man may win the so-
cial esteem of to-day by some brilliant stroke of
genius, but unless there is an ethical purpose
and a religious quality to his life society will
not long hold him in high esteem. On the con-
trary, many a man who with these qualities has
toiled on without recognition of his work in his
day and generation has later received, or will
yet receive, a due estimate of his work if it has
been well done in the interest of society. The
crucified of one age is the exalted of another if
his work has been wrought for the saving of
the race.

80 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

So I claim that while we may have the
highest conceptions of social action by the in-
telligent group, we should not forget the social
efficiency of the individual, and while we are
studying the factors of great social move-
ments we should not neglect to teach to the stu-
dent of to-day the factors in the life of the in-
dividual upon whom the age sets the highest
estimate of worth. As an educational problem
all this involves a development and education of
the social mind.

CHAPTER VI

THE DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION OF THE
SOCIAL MIND

Wuat We MEAN By THE Socrat MInpD

Tr will not be practicable for us to enter into
a more thorough treatment of the social mind
from the viewpoint of the social psychologist,
or from the standpoint of the sociologist who
places emphasis upon the mind of the group—
or the manifestations of mob mind—or the
decisions of orderly society. But we treat
the subject in a rather. unacademic way. be-
cause the ordinary man makes use of ex-
pressions that indicate he knows what is
meant by the term. We, for example, fre-
quently hear people say, ‘‘We must make up
our mind to do this, or that, or so and so,”’’
which would indicate an association or group
of ideas that was common to all and yet could
be best expressed by the action of the group
as a whole. According to Professor Giddings,
‘<The social mind is the phenomenon of many,
individual minds in interaction, so playing upon
one another that they simultaneously feel the
same sensation or emotion, arrive at one judg-
ment and, perhaps, act in concert. It is, in

81

82 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

short, the mental unity of many individuals
or of the crowd.’’! According to Professor
Cooley, the social mind is but a larger aspect
of mind in general. To quote: ‘‘Mind is an or-
ganic whole made up of cooperating individu-
alities. .. . When we study the social mind we
merely fix our attention on larger aspects and
relations rather than on narrower ones of or-
dinary psychology. The unity of the social
mind consists not in agreement but in organiza-
tion.’ Professor Wundt, of Leipzig, says that
from the viewpoint of the experimental psychol-
ogist a people or folk may have a mind or soul
as well as an individual.® Of course he was in
this connection considering not the social mind
so much as the manifestations of the mind of
the group. But there seems to be in the mind
of the ordinary reader some confusion after
reading these definitions as to whether the so-
cial mind can be the possession of the individual]
while at the same time it is the possession of
the group; and, again, as to whether the group
may not possess a mind so narrow as to be en-
tirely devoid of social content in the true sense
of the term ‘‘social.’? TI think, therefore, that
we may get some help toward clearing our
minds of this confusion by defining the social

1See “Principles of Sociology,” 1908, p. 134.

? See Publications of American Sociological Society, pp. vi, 97.

‘From “Lectures on ‘Volkerpsychologie,’ ” in Leipzig, 1910,
taken from my notes.

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THE SOCIAL MIND 83

mind as follows: (1) The social mind consists
in a body of knowledge or of ideas, that may be
realized in conduct that has social values, and
may be expressed in thoughts, feelings, or
deeds. (2) This body of knowledge may be
possessed by an individual in society, or by a
group in its relation to other groups or indi-
viduals, or by a nation at large, and ultimately
by humanity asa whole. (3) Such a social mind
can be developed only through experience in
human relations.

We must be careful just here not to confound
the social mind with the social consciousness,
and it would be well for the reader to review
just at this point Uhapter I. Mind is a body of
knowledge upon which the understanding or
mentality of man is founded. An idiot may be
conscious, but he has no mind to speak of, no
' knowledge. But a normal individual person is
never conscious of all he has in his mind at any
stated period. Consciousness is a state of
mind; social consciousness the state of the mind
with reference to society, and may be mani-
fested by the individual or by the social group.
Tn this connection it is well to be reminded also
of the importance of making a distinction be-
tween consciousness of society or of things
about us and the social consciousness. They
do not necessarily mean the same psycholog-
ically. Social consciousness implies the ability

84 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

of the individual person or group to make use
of ideas for the advantage of society as well as
for self. In fact, no idea, whether in the con-
sciousness of the individual or in that of the
group, can be properly called social until it can
be expressed in terms of social activity of some
sort. To be aware of persons or of a social
group does not prove that an individual or a
society of individuals has a social consciousness,
in the true sense of the word, any more than to
be aware of a flock of sheep would prove for
the pack of wolves that they had any social con-
sciousness so far as the interests of the sheep
were concerned. Social consciousness always
involves a moral element in human associations
as well as the element of utility. We may say,
therefore, that the social mind involves the
ability of a group of persons possessing a body
of knowledge to think together, to feel the same
way, and to act together for the good of the
group and other groups, or for individuals
within or without the group. And it also
equally implies the ability of the individual
possessing such a body of knowledge to act in
a similar way with the same motives and for
the same ends.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE Socran Minp

How can the social mind be developed? This
is the important question for the educator to

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THE SOCIAL MIND 85

answer, and to none is it more important than
to the religious social engineer who has the
chance to develop in the individuals of the com-
munity the mind of the Master, and to bring
together that body of knowledge which may be
utilized for the mutual uplift of the whole com-
munity. I would answer this question in brief
by saying: The social mind can be developed by
the presence of those who possess it-—by the
principle of imitation through the awakening of
desire in the soul of the individual or of the
group. In short, by the ministry of personality.
Upon this fact is based the entire success of the
social-settlement movement. The social mind
develops in the same way that any mind de-
velops. In the individual it is the unfoldment
of the instincts and desires into their corre-
sponding faculties of personality throughout
the entire period of growth. So for the group:
in the process of association there will be pe-
riods of conflict, toleration, alliance, sympathy,
and pleasurable codperation between groups.
No group can possess the social mind without
having mastered itself in all these stages of as-
sociation. So we find that the basis of social
control is self-control in the individual factors
of society. The social mind is developed in the
beginning for the race in the family group, and
other factors of the social composition, such as
horde, clan, tribe, and folk, up through all

86 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

the stages of nation building, and will reach
its culmination in ‘‘the parliament of man’’
through the ‘‘federation of the world.’’ For
the individual social units to-day the social
mind begins to develop in the family, and is
more rapidly developed by association in the
vast and intricate network of voluntary and
purposive organizations in the social constitu-
tion of the State or nation, and through the
Christian world-view of the brotherhood of
man.

THE Epucation of THE Socran Minp

Another question of interest to the modern
educator is, How may we educate the developed
social mind? Men and nations are often stimu-
lated to heroic and beneficent deeds for the good
of others by the applause or approval of the
crowd; but they are as frequently spoiled by
the flattery or deterred by the threatening of
the multitude. What we need most in our day,
is an educated and cultured social, mind that
will be so well developed in all its faculties that
there may be always in every community and
nation rational social action, the result of well-
balanced judgments and properly controlled
emotions.

We can educate the social mind only by
dealing with the social units within the range
of our educational institutions, and I include

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THE SOCIAL MIND 87

among them the Sunday school as one of the
most important.

1. We must teach men and women what so-
ciety is and what it is not; what we can do to
reform and change the social order and what we
cannot do. This, of course, involves the study
of the science of society in the curriculum of
the schools, as well as sane teaching in the Sun-
day schools of the country the principles of
social structure and of the modern social move-
ment, with emphasis, of course, upon the social
message of Jesus and the prophets, and the
splendid social program of the apostle Paul.

2. The student must be related to society as
it is, and be taught the importance of heredity
and environment in the life of society—that
both are socializing factors in the life of every
individual for good or evil. He must be shown
also the social character of religion, that his
life may be based properly upon the relation of
every creature to the Infinite Creator, and espe-
cially of the individual to Jesus Christ. He
must be taught the social basis of morals. This
can be done more easily than some think. For
illustration: Professor Sweet, of the Syracuse
Mechanics School, related one evening to the
Schoolmasters’ Club of Syracuse how he taught
a class a lesson in social morals en one occasion
in his school. A young fellow had borrowed
from one of his classmates, without asking, a

88 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

pair of calipers, and having broken them by
carelessness in the using returned them to the
locker without telling his classmate either that
he had borrowed them or had broken them; and
when it was discovered and reported to the pro-
fessor he said to the whole school next morn-
ing at chapel: ‘‘Some young man has lost a
great opportunity of his life—an opportunity
of winning the esteem of his classmates—but
now has won their condemnation and distrust
by not being a man and making it right with
his classmate’’; and he added in his address
to the club, ‘‘You can readily see that such a
lesson in social morality would make a lasting
impression upon a whole class of young boys
and girls in any school or college recitation
room.’’ And we might add, that such lessons
in social morality may be easily taught in the
Sunday school classes of all grades in every
community. The student can be taught also the
social character of industry—how socialized the
labor necessary in production for the world
markets has become to-day. This would lead
to a better understanding between employers
and their workers, and of the responsibilities of
all organized industry to society at large. The
social character of commerce could be easily
illustrated by the various communities, States,
and nations that are bound together in social
organizations by the bands of commercial en-

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THE SOCIAL MIND 89

terprises and needs. Also the social signifi-
cance of government could be illustrated by the
examples of men serving the State with effi-
ciency, and by: the examples of others who ex-
ploit public office for private and personal ends.

3. We can educate the social mind by socializ-
ing our educational agencies and equipments.
The teachers in all our schools must be them-
selves equipped with the social mind—with
thorough knowledge of society and the relation
of the individual to it. Many of our text-books
must be modified to suit the changing needs of
the social consciousness and activity of our age.
Literature and history written with individual
or partisan bias will illustrate what I mean. Of
course for the Sunday school and Church it
means the modification of our interpretation of
the social teachings of Jesus and the apostles,
and a corresponding change in our Sunday
school literature, which, happily, we are getting
under the efficient leadership of editors and
secretaries. Again, the socializing disciplines
of industry, trades, and crafts must be more
widely introduced and more efficiently equipped
in our public schools. The homes and family
life of the masses must be improved in many
quarters. This can often be done indirectly
through neighborhood meetings, lectures, moth-
ers’ clubs, etc., under the auspices of the school.
Our cities can be educated so as to develop civic

90 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

pride among their inhabitants by improvements
in their streets, parks, playgrounds, buildings,
etc., and by organizing local community im-
provement associations such as have been or-
ganized with promising results in many cities
and towns. All these agencies and factors of
our ordinary community life can be socialized
for the education of the social mind in the life
of the present.

To do all this there must be, of course, an
aroused social consciousness, an enlightened
public opinion, persistent social effort by the
will of the people held firmly directed by in-
telligent social control toward the Christian
ideal for the government of society—the king-
dom of God on earth. What institution fur-
nishes a better chance for social service along
these lines of efficient individual effort than the
Sunday school, with its millions of young
plastic lives and thousands of strong, educated
young men and women, who give promise of
efficient social leadership when they shall have
developed and educated this mind in them that
was in Christ Jesus?

CHAPTER VII
SOCIAL PROGRESS

WE can readily see that the study of social
progress belongs to the general topic of social
education, for, unless we know something of
its meaning, how are we to know the worth of
our educational system, and what will be the
ultimate outcome of all our efforts to teach the
individual his relation to life? What may seem
progress in the popular mind may be retro-
gression, and what may seem to be going back
may be but the wiser course in order to find the
right road to our destination. It is, therefore,
important at the outset that we have clearly in
mind some definite notions of what is meant
by social progress. If we are not able to define
progress, have we a right to go on with any
system that may ultimately lead us into defeat
in the struggle with other competing factors
and forces in the make-up of human society?
If we are retrograding, may it not be possible
for us to discover the fact and prepare to meet
it by teaching the principles of progress to the
social units, and inspiring them to fall in line
with the best policy and win victory out of
seeming defeat? We all have some general

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92 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

notion of progress, yet how few of us have
clearly in mind any adequate definition of prog-
ress, or have in hand any norms by which to
measure it! These we must have, as social en-
gineers, if we are to do our best work in fulfill-
ing the social tasks of instructing those who
are to be the contributors to progress or be-
come a drag to the forward movement of so-
ciety.

It is our purpose, therefore, in this chapter
to give the reader some of the ideas of social
progress, the norms by which it may be meas-
ured, and what we consider to be an adequate
definition.

IpgAs oF Progress

Our ideas of social excellence are either
retrospective or prospective. We either think
the former days were better than these, or we
look for good days to come; we either look to
the past for the ‘‘Golden Age,’’ or we look for-
ward to the ‘‘millennium’’ that is to be.

History furnishes us with stretches of time
and milestones of experience, so that we can
compare age with age, or study the course of
life in cross-section, so to speak, and discover
by the scientific method of observation and in-
duction whether this age is in the line of prog-
ress aS compared with any other age. So we
speak of the ‘‘Dark Ages,’’ the ‘‘ Middle Ages’’;

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SOCIAL PROGRESS 93

of the periods of the ‘‘Reformation,’’ the
‘“‘Renaissance,’’ the ‘‘Aufklaerung’’; of the
days of Feudalism, slavery, absolutism, Democ-
racy, constitutional government, etc., and we
may rightly ask, ‘‘Does this method constitute
for us a norm of progress?”’

Among the prospective ideas of progress
may be mentioned the following:

1. The Hebrew people had their ideal of
progress, when an age of peace should come
in which nation should no longer lift up sword
against nation, nor even learn war any more;
that splendid time which the prophets had fore-
told when no man shall say to his neighbor,
‘““Knowest thou the Lord?’’ for they shall all
know him from the least unto the greatest.

2. Jesus and his apostles thought of a future
state, when there shall be one fold and one
Shepherd, when the kingdoms of this world
shall become the kingdom of our Lord and his
Christ, when all peoples shall know of the
Fatherhood of God and acknowledge the
brotherhood of the human race.

3. The philosopher has an idea of the time
when that state of society shall have been
reached wherein the conduct of every individual
will contribute to the good of self, of offspring,
and of humanity at large; a time when nature’s
law of need and supply, desire and satisfaction,
shall be so adjusted that there will be no longer

94. THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

suffering and pain; a condition of development
when tasks now irksome will be pleasurable be-
cause persisted in, and because they are neces-
sary for the common good.!

4. The economist has his ideas of progress,
in which every nation shall come to a state of
economic and industrial independence, when by
a division of labor there shall be no longer
destructive competition between states, but a
reciprocity that will be mutually beneficial to all.

5. The sociologist has his ideas of progress
which shall gradually establish for the civilized
world an equilibrium between population in-
crease and the nation’s ability to maintain its
standard of living with an increasing ratio of
social betterment, leading ultimately to perfect
control of society over the reproductive forces
of the population and the productive agencies
which furnish the necessary commodities of life.

6. The educator has an ideal of progress,
when every member of the state will know how
to read, write, and cipher, and the great mass of
the people have many things that go to make
up the cultured social mind; when every child
shall learn to become a breadwinner for the
family group or for society, and be at the same
time so related to the life of society that he will
not take the bread of another in winning his
own bread.

1 Compare Spencer, “Data of Ethics.”

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SOCIAL PROGRESS 95

7. The statesman thinks of a stage of prog-
ress that will bring to every citizen the greatest
measure of freedom under the law, and main-
tain the full measure of his rights to life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness, a time when all
who want work can find it at good wages, and a
state in which everybody will enjoy the greatest
amount of happiness.

From all these ideas of social progress, retro-
spectively considered as well as prospectively
outlined, we should be able to deduce some defi-
nite norms of progress by which it may be
measured, and also to postulate a practicable
definition.

How Procress May pr Mrasurep

We can state at the outset that our measure
of social progress may be either quantitative
or qualitative. But it is not safe for us to
measure progress by the quantity of goods we
may possess, or by the balance sheet of the na-
tion at large. A man’s life consisteth not in
the abundance of things which he possesseth,
but, rather, in the quality of the character he
has acquired, or in the quality of the life he
manifests toward others in society. We may
state also that our measure of progress must
be based upon the whole range of man’s pos-
sibilities, from his lowest estate to the highest
achievement of which he is capable through

96 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

self-realization and divine grace. This includes
the concepts of man’s sainthood as well as his
beginnings in savagery, or his degeneration to
the condition of the savage. It can also be
stated that our norms of progress will be found
in man himself as the measure of all things.
We begin with the individual and note the
changes in him for progress in social better-
ment; we study the social group in which he
lives, moves, and has his being, until we have
reached the organized consciousness of hu-
manity at large.

Christian education deals with man in all his
social relations, and with him in the use he
makes of the social machinery and organization
by which he achieves for the betterment of him-
self, of his family, the State, and the world at
large. We, therefore, expect a demand from
the educators of our youth for some norm of
progress by which the individual in every rela-
tion may be measured. Here we discover that
progress is a sociological concept of humanity,
for no nation or people in these days of com-
plex social relations, world-wide in scope, liveth
unto himself. Now, if progress does not con-
sist merely in quantitative elements, but, rather,
in qualitative achievement, then progress must
be measured by some ethical standard which
will enable us to determine the real values of
human life as it proceeds on the earth.

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SOCIAL PROGRESS 97

It is also true that our measure of human
progress must be the practicable and workable
principles at the basis of social ethics. These
we find in Christian philosophy to be (1) the
perfect or ultimate man, (2) the perfect or ulti-
mate society, (3) the perfect or ultimate laws
governing men in society. These we must de-
termine as to content in the light of human ex-
perience, the Scriptures, and sanctified reason,
and then they become for us the measures of
progress; for to our thinking there can be no
movement beyond the perfect that may be
rightly termed progress. Hence progress is,
after all, determined more by comparison with
one’s ideals than by measurement with actual
things.

Kinps oF Progress To BE MEASURED

Our norms of progress will depend upon the
kind of achievement we propose to measure:

1. If we propose to measure material prog-
ress, we usually consider the statistics of one’s
wealth or possessions, and for the nation the
balance of trade or the surplus in the national
treasury. If we view it from the viewpoint of
population and the military strength of a na-
tion, we count those able to bear arms and tabu-
late the birth rate and the death rate.

2. If we view progress from the point of
education and culture, we take the school cen-

98 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

sus, and the number of educational institu-
tions and cultural organizations, their relative
strength and endowment as compared with an-
other age or another nation in the same period.
We also measure the progress of individuals in
a school by the number of those who are capable
of meeting certain educational tests.

3. If we consider progress from the religious
point of view, our norm is the relative number
in attendance upon religious worship, and of
those who are communicants or adherents of
the various faiths.

4. From the moral point of view we measure
progress by the statistics of vice and crime as
represented in the general classification of the
criminal code. Also from the prevalence and
strength of moral sentiment expressed in the
press, or by the public platform, or in general
conversation in the presence of some instance
of wrongdoing.

d. If we measure human progress from the
sociological point of view, our norms are unity
and complexity of social organization, the
amount of social machinery, and the efficiency
of social engineering, the lack of friction be-
tween the various factors that operate in hu-
man society, the relative chances of war and
peace in a given case of provocation.

6. Social progress in general must be meas-
ured in terms of life, for the fullest life consists

A>
yet

SOCIAL PROGRESS 99

in the greatest measure of health, wealth, and
goodness, or social esteem. We therefore
measure the progress of our age by the vital
statistics which mark control of diseases, by
the figures which reveal the general distribu-
tion and possession of wealth, and by the in-
stances that reveal the righteousness and good-
ness of society in dealing with its component
members and with its neighbor groups.

In all these fields of human activity Chris-
tian education is the supreme agency for the
promotion of that kind of intelligence which
makes social progress possible and knowable.

DEFINITIONS oF PROGRESS

According to Hegel, the great German phi-
losopher, human development, or progress, is
conceived as a process of self-realization. Step
by step man comes to know himself as a self-
conscious and self-determining being, as a con-
stituent factor in the universe, as an organic
whole. History has been, therefore, the prog-
ress of the consciousness of freedom. Freedom
was at first conceived as an abstract principle
in the universe, and was believed to exist only
in one person—God himself in heaven, or the
monarch on earth. Hence the absolutism of
the Eastern world. The Greeks advanced this
idea to include the citizens as against slaves;
‘Rome advanced the idea to include personal

100 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

rights under the law, and, finally, the Germanic
peoples reached the conception of freedom as
the birthright of all men.1

According to Auguste Comte, progress has
been realized in three stages of development:
1. The theological, in which every act and event
was conceived as a direct intervention of Deity.
Man could, therefore, make no progress in
science or morality because he was childish,
superstitious, and hero-worshiping. 2. The
metaphysical stage, in which man sought to in-
terpret the world in terms of principles, ab-
stractions, entities, and, therefore, lost himself
in fruitless speculation. The human mind was
free but wasted its energies in questionings
concerning the unknowable. 3. The positive,
or scientific, stage, in which speculation gives
place to observation, experiment, induction,
and generalization. Men, finding that there are
enough knowable facts to keep the mind busy,
build on foundations of fact, learn the secrets
of nature which enable them to master the ma-
terial and moral conditions of life.?

According to Herbert Spencer, ‘organic
progress consists in a change from the homo-
geneous to the heterogeneous,’’ and this prin-
ciple he applied to all progress, including the
society as well, for, says he, ‘‘From the earliest

1 Vorlesungen iiber die Philosophie der Geschichte.
2See his “Philosophie Positiy.”’

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SOCIAL PROGRESS 101

_ traceable cosmic changes down to the latest
results of civilization we shall find that the
transformation of the homogeneous into the
heterogeneous is that in which progress essen-
tially consists.’

According to Professor Giddings, ‘‘objec-
tively viewed progress is an increasing inter-
course, a multiplication of relationships, an
advance in material well-being, a growth of
population and an evolution of rational con-
duct.’? Subjectively, ‘‘progress is the expan-
sion of the consciousness of kind.’? And we
quote further: ‘‘The successive world empires
of Persia, Macedonia, and Rome prepared the
way for the Christian conception of universal
brotherhood. It made but little impression
upon the social mind until it was converted into
an ideal, into a doctrine that all men through a
spiritual renewing were made brothers. Chris-
tianity became the most tremendous power in
history. Gradually it has been realizing its
ideal, until to-day a Christian philanthropy and
Christian missionary enterprise, devoting them,
selves to the diffusion of knowledge and the im-
provement of the conditions and the upbuilding
of character, are uniting the classes and the
races of mankind in a spiritual humanity.’”

My own definition of progress is as follows:

1See Westminster Review, April, 1857.
*See “Principles of Sociology,” p. 360.

102 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

1. For the individual, progress consists in the
measure of self-realization and self-control, and
in the social efficiency and socialization of the
individuals of the group. 2. For the nation, it
consists in the development of rational social
control of all its members, and in a conscious-
ness of kind that overcomes social friction, the
evolution of social organization, and invention
of social machinery that enable it to utilize
and control all the social forces and energies
within and resist the social forces and powers
from without that are harmful, and in the re-
lating of itself to all other social groups in a
sympathetic and pleasurable way. 3. For hu-
manity as a whole, progress consists in the con-
sciousness of an onward movement of the race
toward an ideal state of society recognized by
the social mind in general as attainable, and in
social efforts for its attainment.

To make progress thus defined possible there
is always implied in all the social factors the
intellectual grasp of the social significance of
all educational fields. How this intellectual
grasp may be attained by all the social factors
can be shown only by a more thorough discus-
sion of the social aspects of education. No edu-
cational institution has a better chance to con-
tribute to this result than the Sunday school
that is up to date in its method of organization
and teaching.

CHAPTER VIII
SOCIAL STUDIES

THERE are times when certain needs are so
keenly felt and conditions so evidently ready
for reform that men act spontaneously for the
relief of their fellows, but at other times the
needs for social action are so remote or hidden
to the ordinary man of affairs, and conditions
so deceiving to even the interested, that there
must be long and persistent and patient study
before adequate measures can be put in opera-
tion for the permanent good of the community.
So it is necessary for the best results to inau-
gurate in every community social studies by
men who hope to do the most good for their
times, and those who shall come after.

No one knows when he sets out upon the task
of social study what are to be the factors of the
problem he is seeking to solve. Take, for ex-
ample, any particular case of drunkenness,
pauperism, or homicide in your community;
then take up a study of all the influences and
factors in the life of such an individual, and
you will be surprised to find how far-reaching
in social relations and causes this case roots
itself. So for the institutions, good or bad, laws

103

104 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

and customs that need revision or reform. All
furnish interesting fields and phases of social
study that will make more real to the men of
to-day the problems of the social engineer in
every age as well as our own.

Do the men of the community have, as a
rule, any adequate notions as to why we have
the various classes of society, persons varying
in degrees of personality, in vitality, and in
social status among their fellows in the same
community? Have they always a clear idea
as to why we have the struggles of class
organizations in the great industrial world,
or in the political, religious, and moral group-
ings of the race, or why we have experienced
in every age the struggles of race antago-
nism and social friction? Denominationalism
is in itself a field for social study that is
extremely fascinating and profitable for men
of the Church to-day. Municipal, State, na-
tional, and international conditions and needs
are available for our study, and offer a wide
field for social investigation by men who have
in consciousness the world program of Jesus.

But we must be more specific in our treat-
ment of social studies. Conditions of living
vary greatly in different communities, so that
the problems of the congested quarters of the
great cities, the uptown districts, the suburbs,
and the country are not the same, and these

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SOCIAL STUDIES‘ 105

vary according to climate, race, and industrial
conditions in the respective localities. But we,
nevertheless, discover sooner or later that even
our specific and particular problems are re-
lated to the greater world-problems of social
welfare and social control.

Speciric Socran Stupies

I know of no better way of calling attention
to some of the specific problems for our social
study by the men of our churches than by point-
ing to the official statement of the General Con-
ference of the Methodist Episcopal Church of
1908,' especially the paragraphs on ‘‘The In-
dustrial Situation,’’ ‘‘The Labor Movement,’’
‘*Conference and Conciliation,’’ and ‘‘The So-
cial Creed of Methodism.’? Under the last
heading we have the following:

“The Methodist Episcopal Church stands:
For equal rights and complete justice for all
men in all stations of life.

‘‘For the principles of conciliation and ar-
bitration in industrial disputes.

“‘For the protection of the worker from
dangerous machinery, occupational diseases, in-
juries, and mortality.

“<FHor the abolition of child-labor.

‘“‘For such regulation of the conditions of

1See ‘Methodist Discipline”; also “Federation Publication,’’ No.
) Pp. 5.

106 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

labor for women as shall safeguard the physical
and moral health of the community.

‘“‘For the suppression of the ‘Sweating
System.’

‘‘For the gradual and reasonable reduction
of hours of labor to the lowest practical point,
with work for all, and for that degree of leisure
for all which is the condition of the highest hu-
man life.

‘“‘Ror release from employment one day in
seven.

‘‘Wor a living wage in every industry.

‘“‘Wor the highest wage that each industry
ean afford, and for the most equitable division
of the products of industry that can ultimately
be devised.

‘‘For the recognition of the Golden Rule and
the mind of Christ as the supreme law of so-
ciety, and the sure remedy for all social ills,”’
ete.

A Sprcraa Commission on Soctan STUDIES

Now in every church community there are to
be found conditions prevailing that involve one
or more of these points of our social creed, and
I think it is possible for the men of the Church
to take up in a systematized way the study
of these conditions with a view of proposing
methods of meeting them.

To be even more specific with respect to so-

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SOCIAL STUDIES 107

cial studies affecting the Church, I quote from
the Commission to the Methodist Federation
for Social Service given by the last General
Conference (1908) :

““We request the Federation to give the full-
est possible consideration to the following ques-
tions, and to present their findings thereon as a
memorial to the General Conference of 1912
for such action as that body may deem wise:

‘*(1) What principles and measure of social
reform are so evidently righteous and Chris-
tian as to demand the specific approval and
support of the Church?

“*(2) How can the agencies of the Methodist
Episcopal Church be wisely used or altered
with a view to promoting the principles and
measures thus approved?

‘*(3) How may we best codperate in this be-
half with other Christian denominations?

‘‘(4) How can our course of ministerial
study in seminaries and Conferences be modi-
fied with a view to the better preparation of our
preachers for efficiency in social reform?’’

_A Last or Speciric Prosiems ror Socran
SrupDIEs

Under the heading ‘‘Methods,’’ in its pam-
phlet on ‘‘ What is it?’’ the Methodist Federa-
tion for Social Service furnishes the following
list of problems it proposes for practical study:

108 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

‘‘ Associated charities; poverty, its relief and
prevention; public health; child labor and child
saving; cooperation and profit-sharing; the
housing of the people; wages and conditions of
labor; immigration and the needs of the foreign
communities in the cities; marriage and di-
vorce; municipal ownership and control of
public utilities; social and college settlements ;
temperance reform; organized labor; arbitra-
tion and conciliation; religious and moral edu-
eation; in short, all problems which touch the
daily welfare of God’s children, our brethren.”’

It will not be possible for the members of a
brotherhood, men’s Bible class, or any similar
organization of the Church, to take up the
study of all these problems at one time, nor will
it be necessary in any single case to do so, but
in every community some one or more of these
social problems are pressing for solution.

But I wish to consider also some of the most
characteristic studies that relate more vitally
to church work, especially in our day:

1. How to maintain the downtown church, or
the church in a changing population of the tene-
ment dwellers, especially where most of them
are of foreign birth.

2. How to maintain the efficiency of the coun-
try church in the community where the popula-
tion is changing as in no other locality, and
where our method has usually been that of

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SOCIAL STUDIES 109

sending men who were, in the nature of the case,
less fit for the task than others, not only with
respect to age (young men or very old men),
but also with respect to preparation and ex-
perience.

3. The problem of race prejudice and race
antagonism, not only between Negro and white,
but also between Jew and Gentile, Asiatic and
European, Slav and Teuton, Indian and white
man, and many others that seem to deny the
principle of universal brotherhood of man.
We know how it can be overcome in the indi-
vidual case by Christian education and culture.
Is it not worth while to study how it may be
universally destroyed?

4. Divorce and its causes. The report on
marriage and divorce for the years 1887-1906
in the United States, recently given out by the
Department of Commerce and Labor through
its Bureau of the Census, gave to the world
some ‘startling results, as to the frequency of
marital disunion, and the causes therefor.

5. Social diseases and their relations to the
family. For some of the most convincing and
startling results of such a social study I refer
the reader to the paper of Prince A. Morrow,
M.D., published in the ‘‘American Journal of
Sociology,’’ March, 1909. The two that exact
the greatest tribute of human life and hap-
piness are tuberculosis and gonococcus infec-

110 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

tion, or syphilis. While these are subjects for
experts of the medical profession, yet we all
know what good the laymen can do in the field
of prevention, and of remedy, and it is here
that our social studies need to be pushed with
haste and energy, yet with wisdom and Chris-
tian sympathy.

6. Child-labor, child-saving, and the juvenile
court and probation system, and their results
upon modern standards of life and morals.
Men are idle while women and children are at
work. Why is this? and how can it be stopped?
is a social problem of the greatest modern in-
terest.

7. Organized labor and its claims, its possi-
bilities for good as well as for evil, when under
the leadership of strong men, furnishes another
field for social study that will help the Church
as well as society when taken up seriously by
Christian men everywhere.

8. The standards of living in the cities and
in the country and their relation to the moral
and religious life of the people in the com-
munity.

9. The problem of the liquor traffic: How it
may be controlled or destroyed. There is un-
doubtedly enough impulse and purpose within
the churches to-day, if properly organized, to
win in the struggle against the saloon. It has
been done in many States, counties, and com-

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SOCIAL STUDIES 111

munities in recent times. There is need yet for
study as to how the whole question is, after all,
to be solved as a world problem, as well as a
local or national one.

10. Social education. We have just begun to
see the possibilities in this great social field.
In industrial education, moral teaching, and re-
ligious education in the community we have
another social study of supreme importance to
the Church.

These are some of the specific problems of
social significance that are pressing for solution
to-day. We have not the space for details in
method, even if they were desired, but in clos-
ing I wish to say that, in my judgment, the best
method for social studies is that of field work
in daily contact with men and human affairs,
although we must not ignore the work of other
men recorded in useful books and magazines
for reference. These will help us to see beyond
the narrow experiences of our day’s work in
our little field, and, besides, they give us a
wider range and more extended vision.

CHAPTER IX
FRIENDSHIP AS A SOCIAL FORCE

THE social engineer must understand the so-
cial significance of friendship, and he must
master the art of making friends.

Dr. Newell Dwight Hillis, in his book on
‘‘Man’s Value to Society,’’ says: ‘‘ Destiny is
determined by friendship. Fortune is made or
marred when the youth selects his companions.
Friendship has ever been the master passion
ruling the forum, court, and the camp.’’

Some one has said that ‘‘genius is a function
of race and fame a function of history’’; but
when we come to study the causes of fame we
could as truthfully say that it is the function
of friendship, for there has been no great man
in history who has not reached his place of
honor by the gift of his friends. We see the
working of this social force in the State, the
Church, and in the social life of the community
everywhere, in placing men and women to the
front whether they are worthy or unworthy.

The offices of the State, from the chief execu-
tive to the janitorship of the loekup of some
rural village, are filled by men who never could
have won these positions save by this social

112

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FRIENDSHIP AS A SOCIAL FORCE 113

force of friendship. Bishops and prelates, as
well as pastors, are often chosen not on merits
alone but by their friends. In social clubs men
are chosen because of their ability to win the
friendship of those who are members, and the
positions of honor are filled on the same
grounds. In all the great modern fields of
philanthropy and intelligent organized charity
work, this is the greatest social dynamic that
keeps men and women bound to their tasks in
the social uplift of the masses. It is this social
bond that neutralizes the dispersive forces of
jealousy and hatred and holds orderly society
together in family and social groups. It is
therefore fitting that we seek for the sources
of this important factor in human experience,
and endeavor to describe some of its more in-
teresting characteristics in order that the so-
cial worker may be the better able to utilize it
in the performance of his social tasks.

There is nothing more mysterious and yet
more masterful than friendship. We know full
well its worth in life and its power to spur us
to action in another’s behalf, and yet we often
question why we have the friends we do have
and not the friendship of others. Bacon says in
his essay on ‘‘Friendship,’’ ‘‘The best way to
represent to life the manifold use of friendship
is to cast and see how many things there are
which a man cannot do himself; and then it will

114 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

appear that it was a sparing speech of the an-
cients to say, ‘That a friend is another him-
self,’ for that a friend is far more than him-
self.’’! ‘‘How many things are there which a
man cannot, with any face or comeliness, say or
do himself? A man can scarcely allege his own
merits with modesty, much less extol them; a
man cannot sometimes brook to supplicate or
beg; and a number of the like. But all these
things are graceful in a friend’s mouth which
are blushing in a man’s own. But to enumerate
these things were endless; I have given the rule,
when a man cannot fitly play his own part, if
he have not a friend, ‘he may quit the stage.’ ”’

Friendship is a paradox among the social
forces, because its effects are both dispersive
and unifying to society, for it plays the most
important part both in the disintegration and
in the founding of the family group. When a
boy I used to watch with eagerness a bluebird
as she came every spring to build her nest and
rear her young in the top of an old gatepost in
front of our country home. It was my delight
to climb the gate and peep down the hole in the
top of the post at the chubby, featherless crea-
tures in their cozy nest; but when they grew
bigger with their full plumage, and flew away
to their Southern clime, I was sorry, for I
missed their plumage and their song. But when
~ 18elby, p. 72.

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FRIENDSHIP AS A SOCIAL FORCE 115

I grew older I learned that a higher law than
love for the parent nest impelled them to fly
away and leave the nest in the gatepost—they
went away to build other nests in other gate-
posts, and to cheer other boys with their plu-
mage and song.

Likewise, when we see a well-ordered family,
contented and happy in their home, we would
gladly have them all abide, yet we know full
well that there are higher claims which they
must meet in obedience to the laws of their be-
ing and of the social order in which they find
themselves, making it necessary for children
now grown up to leave the parental fireside and
seek other places of abode near or far. This .
part of the social process which we may observe
from day to day in every community we call the
disintegration of the family. There are many
abnormal factors as well as normal laws that
contribute to this result, but greater than all
is that social bond we call friendship, which
often leads to the marriage union.

1. The basis of friendship. One of the most
difficult problems of social philosophy is to find
a satisfactory theory with reference to the basis
of friendship. If it were simply a matter of
friendship between the members of the sexes,
it would be a matter easy to explain; but we
find, on the contrary, that this phenomenon fre-
quently exists between man and man, woman

~

116 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

and woman, or between men and women who
have no thought of wedlock. We observe also
that friendships are frequently formed between
persons of opposite temperaments, or between
persons who are unattractive, friendships under
circumstances so various that one is often led
to believe it to be merely a matter of chance.

Various explanations of the phenomenon of
friendship have been offered, among which have
been the following: First, that based on the
doctrine of the transmigration of souls in which
it is assumed that the souls of persons once in
social relations in another state of being find
their fellow souls in this life. In the absence
of proof of the doctrine of transmigration, this
theory lacks the dignity of an explanation.

Another view is that there exists in members
of the human species a kind of social affinity
which causes two persons of corresponding ele-
ments of character to become friends on ac-
quaintance, much in the same way as two chemi-
cal elements possessing an affinity for each
other would unite in the accidents of nature or
the experiments of the laboratory. This theory
does very well as an explanation until one of
these friends loses his social affinity, and knocks
his neighbor on the head, sulks in solitude, or
forms another disturbing combination with a
new ‘‘affinity.’’

Still another theory is that based upon evolu-

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FRIENDSHIP AS A SOCIAL FORCE ay

tion, which claims that man originally was like
other animals, living solely for self, until in
later stages of his development higher instincts
similar to gregariousness in animals led him
to form friendships for his own advantage ;
therefore, according to this view, friendship is
based upon utility, for it is claimed we make
friends with those who benefit us most. But
when asked to explain why one person is
friendly to another who may have become a
burden and a care, or even a social disadvan-
tage, the advocates of this theory reply that
along with these instincts of friendship have
developed other attributes of character such as
honor, faithfulness, constancy.

One other view is that based upon the teach-
ings of revelation, namely, that man was
created and endowed with a nature so like the
Divine that had he remained obedient to the
moral law there would have been no enmity be-
tween man and his fellow beings. Love and
good will would have bound together the indi-
viduals of the human race. Sin is regarded as
the disturbing element in human nature and
the chief cause of social friction, and only as it
is eliminated through the atonement can men
come to love the unlovely and be real friends
one with another. This view implies that every
human being, whether high or low in the scale
of life, possesses at least some element of the

118 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

divine nature, and few have become so brutal
but that they are capable of being friendly in
some degree.

2. Characteristics of true friendship. True
friendship is constant. As one of the old prov-
erbs puts it, ‘‘A friend loveth at all times.’’
There are false friends who are friendly when
we are in prosperity, but who desert us when
adversity overtakes us—those who are friendly
when we are well spoken of, but desert us when
our name is in ill-repute; but the true friend
remains constant under such circumstances and
stands the closer by when adversity comes.

Real friendship has a positive element. If a
man expects to win friends and hold them, he
must be friendly to others, ‘‘A man that hath
friends must show himself friendly.’’ One can-
not expect to keep friends constant unless he
reciprocates their good fellowship; there must
be reciprocal exchanges of feeling and actions
or friendship will not last. It is a delicate plant
and is readily destroyed by too much heat
(anger), or dies in a cold atmosphere (indiffer-
ence).

True friendship has also an element of
sacrifice. The true friend will make sacrifice
for those whom he loves. Even life itself is
considered not too great a sacrifice for the altar
of friendship. ‘‘Greater love hath no man
than this, that a man lay down his life for his

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FRIENDSHIP AS A SOCIAL FORCE 119

friends’? (Jesus). In feudal days many a
knight gave his life to defend his overlord.
Cases are not wanting to-day where life is im-
periled for the sake of a friend.

Friendship has the right to command. ‘Ye
are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command
you”’ (Jesus). Where true friendship exists
a look, a nod, or a whisper, expressive of need,
is a command and is quickly obeyed by the
trusted friend. Obedience is the test of friend-
ship, but it is a dangerous test when pushed
too far, for friendship, however true, is at the
breaking point when it becomes a tyranny.

There is in true friendship also an element
of frankness. A true friend will tell us our
faults as well as applaud our virtues. ‘‘Faith-
ful are the wounds of a friend’’ (Proverbs).
Those who prize the true friend should receive
correction from him with the same eagerness
as they do his applause. Bacon says truthfully,
‘‘Hor there is no such flatterer as is a man’s self,
and there is no such remedy against flattery of
a man’s self as the liberty of a friend.’’

‘Take to heart what your wife says to you
when she is angry with you,’’ was the advice
once given to me by a friend who had observed
from a long experience as a man of affairs how
difficult a thing it is for a man to see his own
faults, and how seldom he has the privilege of
hearing them rehearsed by his friends or even

120 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

his enemies, except perhaps by the latter in the
midst of the excitements of the campaign, when
he is apt to think with self-complacency that his
faults have been greatly exaggerated for cam-
paign purposes only. So it seems to me that
one of the greatest gifts of friendship is the
ability to give or take a rebuke between friends
that are true. In fact, it never pays to break
with a friend because he rebukes you when in a
temper or mood. He will relent by the next
meeting, while you have gained by the expe-
rience as well as won again his affection. In
fact, I count to-day among my best friends the
men with whom I have exchanged, on occasion,
the sharpest words of frankness, if not rebuke,
to say the least.

3. Christian friendship. Christian friendship
has a distinct and characteristic element which
differentiates it from all other forms of friend-
ship in that it is exerted toward those who are
unfriendly and even toward our enemies—‘‘If
thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give
him drink’’ (Paul). One of the noblest titles
given to the Son of man, the Founder of Chris-
tianity, was that heard frequently on the lips
of the common people, ‘‘He was the friend of
sinners.’’ As a social force Christian friend-
ship became the greatest social dynamic of his-
tory. In it there lies a deep and helpful phi-
losophy, for we are taught to take the initiative

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FRIENDSHIP AS A SOCIAL FORCE 121

in showing ourselves friendly to the friendless.
We have it expressed in the Golden Rule,
“Therefore all things whatsoever ye would
that men should do to you, do ye even so to
them.’’ In this we see friendship firmly estab-
lished on an altruistic basis, free from mere
self-interest or utility at first hand, and taking
on that broader scope which embraces the en-
tire moral order of the world. It has in view
the social uplift and betterment of all men, in
bringing in a world-kingdom of humanity
which is the highest social ideal for the race,
seen in vision by the Hebrew prophets, preached
by the greatest of the apostles, and beautifully
expressed by one of our poets as ‘‘the parlia-
ment of man and the federation of the world.’’

CHAPTER X
SOCIAL LEADERSHIP

WuHen we look all about us to-day at the com-
plex social order in which we are living, the net-
work of associations in which men are grouped
and regrouped in response to certain needs felt
and clearly defined ; when we view the organized
character of the evils that destroy human life
and cause untold misery to homes and indi-
viduals, we are led to see at once that one of
the greatest tasks the Church of to-day has to
perform is the furnishing of social leaders in
the struggle for good citizenship and moral re-
form.

In talking to a socialistic labor leader some
time ago in one of our great industrial centers,
he said that he believed the greatest service the
Church could render the modern labor move-
ment was the furnishing of leaders with some
definite aim for the welfare of the workingmen
in this world, for what they need most is to be
shown how to make this world more like heaven.
We wish in this chapter to show where such
leadership is needed and how it may be devel-
oped by our brotherhoods and other religious
social organizations.

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SOCIAL LEADERSHIP 123

In tHe Fievp or Ciry GoveERNMENT

The great struggle of the Church in all ages
has been in the cities, and at no period of his-
tory has that struggle been more clearly under-
stood by men of keen insight in religious work
than it is to-day.

The Church inaugurates social reforms and
yet is often compelled to leave to a boodling,
grafting administration the task of carrying out
those reforms. In other cases where church-
men have been elected they have proven them-
selves to be so inefficient in sound leadership
that they have lost for the Church the benefits
of a reform movement, and the city has been
plunged back into the old regime by the votes
of those who cannot excuse inefficient service
even when rendered by a pious man. Hence it
seems that in this field one of the first tasks of
the Church—represented by its civic and social
groups in the brotherhood movement—is to de-
velop for the tasks of government that class of
men who will make good the reforms the Church
must have in order to maintain her life in the
community.

Now, I do not mean to say that the Church is
to go into politics as such, but I do say that
one of the chief tasks of the Church is to create
issues that the political party that hopes to suc-
ceed must adopt, and to train men for civic work

124 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

that the same party cannot afford not to nomi-
nate and elect. So it seems to me that our
brotherhood chapters and men’s clubs could
well afford to take up this problem of social
leadership in city government as a part of their
legitimate program.

In LeEcIsLATION AND ADMINISTRATION

In the second place, social leadership is
needed by the Church in the field of legislation
and in the administration and execution of the
laws that control the people. In this field suc-
cess can be reached by first directing our atten-
tion to public opinion and social custom, which
lie at the foundations of much of our lawmak-
ing, and have much to do also with obedience
of and respect for the law. It is a very diff-
cult thing for any man, however just, to exe-
cute the law impartially when he is handicap-
ped by a boisterous public demand for some-
thing else. As a distinguished district attorney
some years ago in New York said with refer-
ence to the trial of a notorious case, ‘‘Gentle-
men, we have come to the spectacle of a trial by
newspapers, rather than trial by the courts.”’
Here, then, is another field where the Church
can do much toward the development in every
community of social leadership that will count
heavily in the establishment of the kingdom of
righteousness.

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SOCIAL LEADERSHIP 125

In THE ETeELp oF OrGANIZED INDUSTRY

A third field where the Church needs to be
represented in social leadership is that of or-
ganized industry. In years past even good peo-
ple who desire to be impartial in their judg-
ments have been so appalled by the manifesta-
tions of power by organized labor in times of
strikes, boycotts, and lockouts, that they have,
without investigating the real causes of the dis-
turbance, decided the case against the laboring
men, and have been ever after biased in their
opinions of the entire labor movement. It is
about time for all good people to begin to study
the real causes of industrial conflicts and also
to formulate some saner notions as to the pos-

sibilities for good, not only to the laboring men

themselves but also for the employers and the
public, in the organized movement among men
for their betterment as a class, not only in the
conditions of work, but also in citizenship, and
ultimately in all that pertains to the welfare of
society as a whole, not excluding the religious
interest, that is taking on organized forms of
expression.

‘I believe the time will come when the labor
movement, under intelligent moral leadership,
which it already has in a marked degree, will
wage war against social vice and crime as
strenuously as it ever has against an unjust

126 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

employer or a soulless corporation. We dis-
cover here, it seems to me, one of the greatest
fields for Church activity in seeking to make
that social leadership in all industrial centers
an ally of all the moral and religious forces of
the community. The men’s organizations will
be wise in encouraging and supporting such of
their members who have an ambition for leader-
ship in this the greatest movement of our age.
Leaders of organized labor, as well as leaders
of organized capital, must be men who com-
prehend their mutual relations, and the rela-
tions of both to the great public who use the
goods produced for the market by industrial
concerns. In recent years we have witnessed
the utilization of such leadership in this field as
never before in the case of men who, by their
power of social perspective and sense of social
justice, have averted industrial warfare by wise
counsels in directing others in the pursuits of
peace.

Tar Frenp or OrGANIZED CHARITY

*Still another field where the Church’s in-
terest in social leadership is strong is that of
managing organized charity and philanthropy.
Never before were there evident so many great
gifts and foundations for the betterment and
welfare of the dependent, defective, and delin-
4 See discussion in Chapter XX.

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SOCIAL LEADERSHIP 127

quent classes. In this field the Church has the
keenest interest and has ever furnished some
of the best workers. So in all the fields of
religious activity and education there is need
to-day for men of social training for the tasks
of utilizing the forces available for social

progress.

CHAPTER XI
THE CHURCH’S PERIL

THERE are some folks who to-day are seri-
ously concerned about what they call the
‘‘peril’’ of the Church, and yet when you ques-
tion them as to what it is they seem unable to
define it; and yet they assert that they feel the
Church is in peril. The social engineer should
inquire the causes of this fear, and endeavor
to show what these expressions of fear mean;
and if he finds there is a real peril threatening
the Church, he should seek to know how it may
be averted.

Wauart Is a Peri?

Our ordinary notions of peril involve the
conception of something alarmingly and immi-
nently threatening at the moment, like an ava-
lanche in the path of a mountain climber, or a
rushing torrent to the inhabitants of a village
in the valley below the broken dam. But, as a
matter of fact, a peril may be even greater
where seemingly there is nothing impending;
for instance, the peril of diseased milk to the
babies of the tenement, of poisoned food to the
workingman (before pure-food legislation) who

128

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THE CHURCH’S PERIL 129

had to buy it in cans rather than in juicy beef-
steaks, because of his meager wage; the gentle
buzz and bite of an infectious mosquito to the
unsuspecting dwellers along the levees, or the
deadly bite of the tsetse fly in the camp of the
ivory-hunters in Africa, or the bacilli of tuber-
culosis to the workers in the vitiated air of the
sweatshop. In fact, a man to-day may be in as
imminent peril of the hatpin of some feminine
strap-hanger in the rush of the subway as he
would be of the surgeon’s needle in an opera-
tion for cataract.

So I believe we are not to look to-day for the
greatest perils of the Church from the gates of
hell, for we have the promise that ‘‘they shall
not prevail,’’ but, rather, in our lack of ability
to marshal our forces for victory; not that she
shall meet defeat in this field or that field of
missionary enterprise, but, rather, that she may
miss altogether the meaning of the word of com-
mand from the Captain of our salvation.

Farture to Atrrract THE MULTITUDES

One of the chief phases of this modern peril
is our failure to make the church attractive to
the multitudes—not the peril of some Etruscan
maiden in the raid of the Sabine warriors, but,
rather, that of some modern maiden who ceases
to receive the attention of her suitors.

Talk with the preachers and earnest laymen

130 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

in our cities and suburban towns, and most of
them will tell you they are putting up a con-
tinual struggle to keep their congregations,
especially during the evening services, respect-
able in size. So it seems to me, as I walk the
streets of our great teeming cities, with their
places of amusement crowded, the parks and
breathing places of the multitudes filled even
during the hours of service in the churches,
that in some way we have not yet learned the
full significance of Paul’s words of instruction
to the young preacher, Timothy, ‘‘to adorn the
doctrine of Christ.’? To me the greatest peril
the Church faces to-day is that we will fail to
make her courts attractive to the multitudes
that need her message.

During the Hudson-Fulton celebration in
New York city we saw simple historical facts
and incidents of our American history so
adorned that actually millions of people—men,
women, and children, even mothers with babies
in their arms, from the East Side and the West
Side—so crowded the line of march that
they literally risked their lives to see the
parade, and as I viewed it from a window
in the Methodist Book Concern building at
Twentieth Street and Fifth Avenue, I thought
within me, ‘‘Would that we had the gift so to
adorn the historical facts of our precious faith,
and make the personality of Jesus Christ so at-

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THE CHURCH’S PERIL 131

tractive in all our ministry, that we could win
the multitudes like that, or at least have it said
of us as it was of him, ‘The common people
heard him gladly.’ ’’

Tue SpreiruaL Deata Rate

Another phase of the Church’s peril, it seems
to me, is the appalling spiritual death rate we
find in all our Church statistics when properly
considered. We have the young life of the com-
munity with us in the Sunday school, baptized
and enrolled as members of the kingdom of God,
and yet how many slip out during the period of
adolescence and are never reclaimed! If you
are not convinced of this fact, count the boys
and young men, and even the girls, on the
streets in your town during the hours of Sun-
day school and church service.

Then, too, we have a number of backsliders
after revival meetings that aggregate almost
as many, if not more in some cases, than those
we hold as faithful members. An experienced
worker in the city of New York, of wide and
ripe experience in rescue mission work, told me
that at least four out of five of all the men re-
claimed on the Bowery had been at some time
actively connected with some church or Sun-
day school. And he further added that in visit-
ing many prisons and questioning the prisoners,
he found that many of these also had been at

132 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

one time attendants at church services, either
in this country or the old country.

Now, is it not time for the brotherhoods and
other social organizations of the Church to
make a serious search for the causes of this
spiritual death rate, and seek the means and
methods of reducing it? It can be done by
placing such emphasis upon preventive salva-
tion, by socializing our activities in making for
them a better environment, as we have in get-
ting the children into the Sunday school, and
the adults by rescue work and revival effort.
We should do this and not leave the other un-
done.

Farture to Master THE Mopern Sociau
MovEMENT

In the last chapter I mentioned the furnish-
ing of social leadership as the Church’s Op-
portunity. To fail to lead the modern social
movement by failing to furnish leaders in the
social crisis of our day is another phase of the
Church’s peril that we should seriously con-
sider as men.'! In fact, I can see no other
reason greater than this for social engineering
being organized, and I can conceive of no
greater task for our men’s organizations te take
up in every community than this.

1 Compare Mott, John R., ‘‘The Future Leadership of the Church.’*
Part II.

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THE CHURCH’S PERIL 133

Tt would be a great pity if the movement of
organized labor should get the notion that we
were not interested in their cause for the wel-
fare of their families, and it would be equally
a great pity if the organizations of employers
should cease to find sympathy from us in their
difficult tasks of adjustment of business to meet
the demands of the changing social order. This
is another phase of the Church’s peril—that we
fail to grasp our opportunity to lead, and be
like a voice crying in the wilderness, not know-
ing what or whose way we are exhorting the
people to prepare. This to me is our supreme
task for the present—to address ourselves to a
study of these social phases of the Church’s
peril, and by diligent social engineering master
them.

PART II
THE SOCIAL ENGINEER AT WORK

CHAPTER XII
THE MEANING OF SOCIAL SERVICE

THE movement for social service among the
various denominations means that the social
consciousness of the Church has been aroused
to the necessity of doing something heroic to
regenerate the changing social order by bet-
tering the conditions of living where the life
struggle and class conflict are the most threaten-
ing to the whole structure of Christian civiliza-
tion; a serious search for a social antitoxin that
shall destroy the toxic effects in the social body
caused by social sinning; an earnest attempt
to apply the preventive measures of the gospel
to the problem of sin as well as the redemptive
agencies of the Word of God. It means organi-
zation to discover the causes of social ills, and
an organized effort to destroy sin at its source.
It means by earnest endeavor to save human
life by regenerating and transforming the en-
vironment that pollutes and destroys human
life. It is our endeavor not so much to save
from the slum as it is a determination to remove
the slum; not alone the screening of the children
from infectious mosquitoes, but filling up the
pools where they breed. It means that the

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138 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

Church has to-day the opportunity within her
grasp to extend the consciousness of brother-
hood among all the social groups now antago-
nistic and competitive, and to give unity of
ideals to the nations of the world, so that wars
may cease. And, further, she has the social pro-
gram in the teaching of Jesus, when rightly in-
terpreted, to socialize the races of men in con-
sciousness, so that prejudice and race conflicts
shall be done away and the world kingdom of
redeemed humanity be made possible of reali-
zation.

But to be more specific: we do not mean by
social service anything like what are known as
church socials, pink teas, tableaux, church sup-
pers, however useful they may be in developing
sociability among the people of the neighbor-
hood; nor do we mean any form of religious
vaudeville by which a few dimes and dollars are
gotten into the church treasury; but we mean,
rather, those serious altruistic activities of
Christian people that help somebody out of diffi-
culty, and better the moral tone of the com-
munity, and advance its economic and social
welfare—such activities as are carried out by
an organized enlightened public opinion through
the agency of trained men and women with the
group consciousness back of them as an en-
couragement and support in the performance of
hard tasks. It means also the conduct of indi-

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MEANING OF SOCIAL SERVICE 139

viduals with a social perspective that sees: be-
yond the immediate act to the social values that
are created by the social energies released by
the initial deed.

InLustrations oF Socrau SERVICE

The act of the good Samaritan was an act of
individual social service because it furnished
a basis for imitation for others, so that Jesus
could say to the young lawyer who had ques-
tioned him as to who is one’s neighbor, ‘‘Go and
do thou likewise.’’ Neighborliness in Jesus’s
mind meant the conduct of the good Samaritan,
for he put the emphasis there when he asked,
‘“Who was neighbor to the man who fell among
the robbers?’’ But the social idea can be
greatly extended by us in modern times by the
concept of organizing a posse to capture the
robbers, or an organized police patrol, so that
the way to Jericho may be made safe for other
travelers.

Again, we may illustrate social service by the
efficient policy of the chief of the board of health
in one of our progressive cities, who prosecuted
the milk dealers who furnished diseased milk
to the homes of the poor, resulting in an in-
creased infant mortality, instead of being con-
tent in thinking his duty to the city ended with
the burying of the dead, the victims of disease
produced by impure milk, or in helping the

140 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

widow or bereaved father to bear the expense.
So that now in this same city the infant mor-
tality has been reduced to the normal rate.

Social service means the placing of a danger
sign on the tailgate of an ice wagon as well
as the carrying of flowers and jellies to the
crippled boy in the home or hospital who un-
wittingly rode behind where there was no sign
and got crushed; or by organized public senti-
ment in enactment of pure-food laws and their
enforcement, as well as sick benefits to those
disabled for work by eating poisoned meats;
or by organized effort against the saloon as a
social evil rather than diatribes on the weak-
ness of human nature in dealing with the man
in the gutter.

Social service means not merely charities and
philanthropies that care for the victims of vice
and poverty, but also intelligent organized
effort to eliminate the causes that make these
necessary, and it means, as well, a readjustment
of our economic and industrial system by wise
statesmanship through social control, so that
the profits of social production may be more
equitably distributed to all classes of society.
Social service in real charity is implied in the
words of Jesus quoted only by Paul, as the
other writers of the New Testament seem to
have overlooked them—‘‘It is more blessed to
give than to receive.”? Why? Because the

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MEANING OF SOCIAL SERVICE 141

giver has the economic advantage in that he is
able to support himself and has a surplus to
give to others, and in the giving is seeking to
get his neighbor into the same economic rank.
Giving with any other motive may be charitable,
but it is not in the truest sense social.

InpivipvaL Sociat SERVICE

We mean by individual social service an act
performed by an individual that at the moment
has no special social significance, but as a pre-
ventive measure may have very important so-
cial consequences for good. For example, it is
said that a little boy once wrote an essay on pins
in which he affirmed that they had saved the
lives of many children ‘‘by the not swallowing
of ’em,’’ by which it is meant that the preven-
tive act of the mother in removing the pin from
the reach of her babies, or the removing of a
tack from the floor where the bare feet might
be pierced, performed a real social service for
the family in avoiding the expense of medical
attention, if not even death from tetanus or
blood poisoning. I know a young woman in the
country in one of the Southern States who
nearly bled to death when she was a girl of
thirteen by cutting her foot with a broken bottle
in the grass while running after a chicken she
was told to catch for dinner. The old notion of
social service would be represented by the mini-

142 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

ature Sheridan ride of a neighbor to the village
near by for the doctor, or the servant who
gathered cobwebs from the barn to stanch the
blood, or by the good sister in the church who
came during convalescence from the weakened
state due to shock and loss of blood with a glass
of jelly or a custard now and then; but the
modern notion of social service would be rep-
resented by removing the bottle from the grass
before the accident occurred. If all the chil-
dren could be taught the social significance of
such an act, how much preventive social work
could we not accomplish in every community!
T have a friend filling an office of great respon-
sibility and dignity in the church who told me
that he had made it the habit of his life never
to pass by a banana peel on the street without
removing it to some place where no one could
be caused to fall by slipping upon it, because he
had once seen a friend of his severely injured
by such a simple mishap. Now, there is not
much honor attached to such an individual act
when viewed by the unthinking crowd on the
streets of a city, but when viewed with the so-
cial perspective of an accident, the ambulance,
the surgical operation, the expense, the pos-
sible pauperizing of the family without the
breadwinner, and all else that may result from
a fall by such an ignominious thing as a banana
peel, we come to see that an individual act of

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MEANING OF SOCIAL SERVICE 143

this character has tremendous social value, and
should be regarded worthy of imitation.

A young preacher, recently graduated from
Drew Theological Seminary, while preaching
Sundays as a supply at an appointment in a
country town, told me that on the way home
from church one day he walked to the middle of
the road and kicked some broken fragments
of glass into the gutter, and a friend with him
remarked, ‘‘What did you do that for?’’
‘“Why,’’ said the preacher, ‘‘I ride a wheel
sometimes, and I did it to save a puncture in
some other fellow’s wheel.’’? Now, such a deed
has a greater social significance when the ‘‘fel-
low’’ in mind is a messenger boy who is making
a living with his wheel, perhaps for a widowed
mother and a group of small children at his
house.

I confess I cannot pass by a nail with the
sharp end up through a piece of board without
bending it down, because I have more than once
seen a good horse ruined by picking up such a
nail in the quick of his hoof, so that he had to
be dispensed with. Now, this means more
socially when the horse in mind is the means of
support of a drayman and his little family, when
the cost of a new horse means the verge of pov-
erty for a whole family. So we might go on
and illustrate in many ways acts that are seem-
ingly insignificant in themselves, but which

144 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

when performed by the individuals of a whole
community mean much for the social welfare of
the many. We have purposely put emphasis
here upon the negative side of individual social
service as acts of social prevention of social
ills; but those of a positive character are as im-
pressive, and play an important role in the esti-
mate we place upon the social efficiency of the
individual in the community.

CHAPTER XIII

HOW TO WORK THE SPECIFIC FIELDS OF SOCIAL
SERVICE

WE have now come to that part of our study
that involves the more specific and practical
phases of social engineering.

We hear men on all sides in these days ask-
ing the man who is talking or writing about
the Church and the modern social movement
how they are to do the things he has suggested.
Now, for some men it is sufficient to show them
the tools or the machinery and the fields where
work is to be done and tell them to do it; but
for others it is necessary to plow a few times
round until they see our method; or it is neces-
sary to walk around with them and keep hold of
the plow until they get courage to try alone.
In the fields of social service it is not necessary
to more than awaken the social consciousness
of some men so that they see the methods al-
ready being used with success in the social field,
while with others we must go still further and
actually work the methods we propose in their
very presence before they seem to be able to
grasp their significance. There are still others
who know pretty well the fields for service, and

145

146 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

are acquainted with the machinery available,
but seem to continue to ask questions, or wait
for some one else to set the pace, merely for
the sake of killing time or shirking respon-
sibility. They are like the man who was so
afraid of breaking his scythe that he hung it up
in a tree and waited for the frost to cut the
weeds he intended to mow.

It is wonderful sometimes how readily meth-
ods develop for the man who is busy with the
doing of his task. Take, for example, the work
of a judge of the juvenile court in one of
our cities in dealing with boys arrested for
stealing junk from the railroads. In ques-
tioning the boys as to why they were so en-
gaged in lawless conduct he ran across an
organized traffic of the junk dealers themselves,
and his method was changed to include the fin-
ing and imprisonment of the junk dealers who
were guilty as the prime cause of this kind of
juvenile delinquency, and by so doing he de-
stroyed at the roots a prolific cause of juvenile
crime in that city.

Now, any man who is seriously interested in
the boys of his community, after knowing of this
fact in the experience of the judge, would not
need to be told that he could save his boys
from the temptation of the junk dealers by sup-
plying them with the equivalents of the things
they sold junk to aequire—a trip to the State

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HOW TO WORK 147

fair, a ticket to the animal show, the dues for
the gymnasium classes at the Young Men’s
Christian Association, or the purchase price of
some popular toy. In fact, most of our prac-
tical problems of social service resolve them-
selves into the handling of those who are causal
to the ills we are seeking to correct, and the
preventive work among those who have not yet
been led astray, as well as the sympathetic
treatment of those who have been overtaken in
trespasses as victims of the organized wrong-
doing of others.

Another matter that needs to be mentioned
in this connection is that we should not wait for
methods to develop in our special field when
there are very successful examples of methods
in other fields of social service in the com-
munity that might well be adopted by us. I once
saw a woman do great execution on a crop of
weeds with a corn-chopper, and split kindling
wood efficiently with a meat cleaver, because
they were the only tools she had in reach. So
many a man in religious social service in the
specific fields of church work could well adopt
and adapt methods used by societies and indi-
viduals engaged in social activities under au-
spices wholly outside the church organization
as such. I am reminded of a story I once heard
of two preachers walking in Billingsgate Fish
Market, and upon hearing a woman strenuously

148 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

abusing a customer for his attempt to cheat her
out of a sixpence, one of these preachers said
to the other, ‘‘Let us get out of hearing of this
brawling woman,’’ but the other said, ‘‘Not yet;
she is teaching me how to preach.’’ So many a
man to-day who is insisting upon some one tell-
ing him how to do it, could well afford to study
some of the methods of the socialized church in
his city, of the organized charity association, of
the head worker of some successful social set-
tlement, of the Salvation Army, of the Young
Men’s Christian Association, or of the Welfare
Committee of the National Civic Federation
that may be installing sanitary measures in a
shop within walking distance of his dwelling.

But, on the other hand, I can sympathize with
the man who asks, ‘‘How?’’ for he may know
the field himself and the methods and machinery
necessary, but find that the laborers available
for the task are few—I mean men and women
of social efficiency who have a socialized con-
sciousness with respect to the tasks set before
the Church and Sunday school, as well as train-
ing in social engineering that counts for some-
thing. The study of the field, as well as work
in the field, is necessary.

Tue Sprciric Freutps or Socran Service

It may be of advantage to the reader for me
to enumerate some of the specific fields of so-

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HOW TO WORK 149

cial work at this time, including the special
fields of charity and philanthropy dealing with
the dependent, defective, and delinquent social
classes, involving questions of pauperism (un-
fortunate and willfully poor), of mental and
physical incapacity, of adult and juvenile way-
wardness and crime, and the causes and cure;
also the fields of preventive philanthropy, in-
volving the prevention of social diseases, such
as tuberculosis and those that grow out of the
social evil and lack of proper sanitation—prob-
lems of social sinning and social salvation. It
also includes the question of the Church and the
laboring man; the meaning of socialism, the
questions of population movement, and those
growing out of population increase, birth rates
and death rates, civic virtue, lawlessness and
mob violence, the integrity of the monogamous
family, and many other like questions that have
to do with the practical everyday life of the
modern community, especially in the larger
cities. To merely enumerate these fields for so-
cial work shows the necessity for a study of
them before we attempt to do very efficient work
in them.

Tue Strupy or THE FreLps

It should be observed at the outset that all
of these problems grow out of the greater
problem of human population in general, and

150 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

that they are but a part of the greater problem
of the struggle for existence and the survival
of the fittest. They form but a part of the study
of social classification and differentiation which
we have treated in a previous chapter. Our
study here is also related vitally to the problem
of moral relations and responsibilities. The
social engineer must study his field to determine
(1) where individual responsibility for condi-
tions lies; (2) where family responsibility rests
for the conditions of offspring and parentage;
(3) what constitutes community responsibility
for the conditions of members of the group, for
their chances to make a living, and for the temp-
tations that may beset them in the social cus-
toms allowed by the community; (4) State and
national responsibility for the condition of the
individual citizen in so far as he is a victim of
State or national policy. In fact, one of the
burning questions of our day is that of social
morality.

What furnishes the motive for our study?
The conditions of human beings as they exist in
the present order of things: the pauper, the in-
sane, the feeble-minded, the deformed, defective
unfortunates, the vagrant, the criminal, and the
delinquent of every grade, from the little boy
before the juvenile court to the hardened high-
wayman before the judge for sentence to death,
or to life imprisonment, not only crowding our

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HOW TO WORK 151

institutions, but many of them still uncared for
im any adequate way in the rush and hurry of
modern community life. It includes also the
vast multitudes of those members of society
who from various causes are on the verge of
need or poverty and must receive help at the
hands of charity or starve; the hosts of the un-
fortunate who must be healed, or cared for by
charity or perish, and also the increasing num-
bers of those who live by exploiting the accu-
mulated earnings and capital of others and dis-
regard all restraints of law and right living.
It includes also the teeming multitudes of the
normal members of the community that may be
kept out of the defective, dependent, and de-
linquent social classes if we are wise enough in
our day to do for them the things that will keep
their energies directed in proper channels of
productive activity. No man can study the life
of the modern workingman in many of our
populated centers without having aroused in
him a tremendous motive for helping to make
his condition otherwise; and when we really
come to know the possibilities for good to the
whole community and to the State in well-
directed organized labor and organized capital,
we will wonder why, for so long, we have in our
religious activities failed to interest ourselves
in these modern movements.

The study of the fields ot social service also

152 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

involves methods of treatment of these great
classes of population: methods by private and
public charity, and charity organization socie-
ties that place the emphasis upon knowing why
relief is asked, and how it came to be needed;
and the study of institutional and associational
treatment of these classes; not only the methods
of treatment in the institutions themselves, and
the maintenance of them, but also the methods
of getting the individual into one of these in-
stitutions. To illustrate: I lived in a town some
years ago where a member of the community
had a defective child which was a great burden
to the mother, a constant expense to the bread-
winner for extra help and doctor’s bills incident
to the case. Only twenty miles distant, less
than an hour by rail, was an institution for the
care of just such cases. A friend who had a
knowledge of the institution, and how to get the
boy into it, so relieved that home that the
mother was soon restored to her normal health,
the father freed from a great burden, and, what
is best of all, the boy, under scientific treat-
ment and Christian care, is now developed into
a healthy, promising young fellow, when if left
at home no such results could have been
achieved.

It includes the study of institutions for refor-
mation, correction, and punishment, the treat-
ment of the delinquent in a civilized, scientific

a
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HOW TO WORK 153

way, as is being done in many of the juvenile
courts and probation systems of our progres-
sive cities; a study of crime as a disease, the
result of maladjustment and bad economic and
social surroundings, and often inherited, in
tendency at least, in the very physical structure.

Our tasks include also the study of the causes
of the conditions we have to meet, especially
those that we classify as preventable ills in so-
ciety, the causes of which are preventable; and
they include also the classification of these
causes—whether physical, psychical, moral, or
social. We can see the value of this method,
for after preventable causes are known our
social tasks are simplified—reduced to the work
of removing them. For example, when it was
discovered that the cause of typhoid fever in
one of our great cities in recent years was the
condition of the water supply, the work of pre-
venting the scourge was one of purifying the
water by building a filter-plant and by con-
trolling the water-shed. When we discovered
certain ills resulting from impure food and
drugs, we passed the pure-food act, that pro-
vided for the inspection and labeling of these
commodities for the protection of the public.
When we discover the high infant death rate
is caused by impure milk, our social task is sim-
plified into pouring such milk into the gutter
after proper inspection.

154 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

Our study leads us further into the problems
of the elimination of the things that are doing
mischief in the community. This often requires
the discovery of new methods by experiment
and deduction. It may mean at times some-
thing quite radical, and at times, in the minds
of the unthinking contemporaries, something
rather ‘‘unorthodox,’’ to use a much-abused
and misused word. We will discover that some
of these are world-tasks, or national problems,
the solution of which we can never reach with-
out the sympathetic codperation of all civilized
and enlightened peoples.

Our study and work also arouse the sympa-
thetic and altruistic impulses of the human soul.
This enables every man to see in his fellow man,
no matter how low in the scale of life, and no
matter how his visage may be marred by strug-
gle, sin, and vice, an image of which he himself
is potentially a likeness. Goethe was not far
from the truth when he said, ‘‘I can think of
no crime in the conduct of another which I my-
self am not capable of committing.’’ We would
rather put it as an old saint in a Methodist class-
‘meeting once stated it when he saw a man be-
sotted with drink: ‘‘But for the grace of God,
there goes me.’’ It will result in the creation of
that charity that never faileth, but endureth all
things, believeth all things, that suffers long
and is kind. It will develop a faith that is opti-

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HOW TO WORK 155

mistic and enables one to endure as seeing the
invisible; a faith in the integrity of human na-
ture as strong, at least, as that we have in
plants and animal forms, that it will respond
to correction and culture, and ultimately take
on the highest forms of expression of which it
is capable, and produce moral fruitage com-
mensurate with the husbandry and culture ex-
pended upon it. It will lead us ultimately to a
rational system of ‘‘eugenics’’—a modern term
used to represent the physical culture and bet-
terment of the human species, the application to
human kind of the principles and laws dis-
covered in biology and made practicable in
animal and plant culture.

Of course we may not hope to see such
methods applied in a positive way by society to
the human species, but we can already apply
those laws and principles of a negative and
environmental character that give promise of
successful results. This may be illustrated by
the successful management of the ‘‘placing-out
system’’ of some of our orphanages in the
State of New York, under the supervision and
control of the efficient State Board of Charities.
It is my conviction that if our Bible classes in
our Sunday schools, our brotherhoods with
their splendid organization and equipment in
men, and the other societies of the Church that
could spare a group or two for this work, should

150 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

take up a serious study of the specific fields of
social service in their respective communities,
as well as relate themselves to the bigger social
tasks, we would not be troubled long with the
question so often raised by church workers in
our day—‘‘How are we to do it?’’ We would
become so enthusiastic over the approaching
harvest that we would go into these fields with
the methods and machinery already at hand,
and which we are improving as we use them,
and reap an abundant harvest for the kingdom
of God.

CHAPTER XIV
SOCIALIZED CHARITY

THERE is no subject of interest to the philan-
thropic activities of the modern church that
did not have an important place in the thought,
and activity, and program of Jesus and his dis-
ciples. The poor that enlisted his sympathy,
the afflicted whom he touched and healed in
spite of ceremonial protests from the unen-
lightened champions of tradition, and the sin-
ning who met the threatenings of the law but
were set right and forgiven by his kindly word
of divine authority, are all with us still, and
together present one of the hardest tasks of
modern society and one of the most difficult sub-
jects of our church work.

It is a matter of interest to know something
about the vast numbers of these three classes
in society, and of the institutions that have been
established and the societies organized to care
for these victims of circumstance and misfor-
tune, of social maladjustment and of economic
blundering; and also of willful digression from
the rightful ways of good citizenship. It is also
important that we should know how these in-
stitutions are controlled and managed and sup-

157

158 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

ported by the State, the municipality, or by
voluntary gifts and bequests, and also how the
specific individuals of these three classes in any
local community may be gotten into the appro-
priate institution for care, treatment, or correc-
tion and reformation. But besides all these
matters of interest that we should know as
teachers and students of moral and religious
truth, we should also know something of the
causes that produce these great classes in mod-
ern civilization.

We are apt to emphasize the causes that are
personal and that lie within the narrow range
of the victims themselves, when, as a matter of
fact, the causes are more frequently found to be
in the environment or in heredity, over which
the greater number of these persons have no
control whatsoever; for example, the blind, the
idiotic, the feeble-minded, the epileptic, the in-
sane, the deaf and dumb, the congenitally de-
formed and crippled, ete. In the case of pov-
erty many of these pitiable creatures are but
the victims of accidents in industry, where the
breadwinner has been killed, maimed, or other-
wise disabled for life; or they are the victims
of inadequate support by profligate parents,
who have spent their meager earnings in drink
or wasted them in other forms of riotous living.
In many other cases poverty is due to the un-
thinking overcrowding of the labor market, the

a=
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SOCIALIZED CHARITY 159

resultant low wages and low standards of liv-
ing which permit the working people to store
up little against the day of adversity they are
likely to meet.

In the case of the multitudes of juvenile de-
linquents the causes lie in the laws themselves,
which, while prohibiting certain things, yet
make no provision for the lawful exercise of
youthful energies. Many a boy has been
brought before the juvenile court for some
misdemeanor which would never have been
committed had the city provided a municipal
playground, or a bathing pier, or some facilities
for useful sports. Phillips Brooks was right
when he said before the great prison congress
held in Boston some years ago, that a man was
a criminal not so much from the fact of what
he had acquired, but, rather, from the view-
point of what he had missed; not that he was
really a criminal, but that he was not fully a
man. So it seems to me, with our modern in-
sight into the causes of poverty, defectiveness,
and badness, we ought to put supreme emphasis
upon supplying our young people, through
channels of social service in the Sunday school
and other organizations of the Church, with the
things they need to keep them from slipping
into these misfortunes; and we should go still
further and bear our share of the expense, with
modern charity and philanthropy, in providing

160 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

those who are already victims with the things
they have missed.

If our moral teaching is going to really
amount to anything in the lives of our young
people, it certainly should include the facts
concerning causes that are known and remedies
that are not only good as temporary measures
of relief but are also fundamental to the elimi-
nation of preventable causes.

Wuat ConcERNING THE Poor?

The question may arise in the minds of
some, What can we teach in the schools con-
cerning poverty, its causes and cure? I do not
claim that we know all the causes, nor that
we are ready to recommend all the remedies
needed, but I do claim that we know some very
definite things as to causes, and some very
definite things as to remedies which we ought
to teach now, and give our scholars the benefit
of what we may term our doubtful proposals
after we have gotten more light.

In the first place, we know that much of
poverty is caused by accidents in industry to
breadwinners for which there is paid no ade-
quate compensation either to the victim or his
dependent wife and children or other depend-
ents upon his wages. Now, it is only a matter
of common business sense for us as Christian
teachers to ally ourselves with those employers

AS
oF

SOCIALIZED CHARITY 161

of labor, and with those who lead the thought
of organized workers, and with public men
everywhere interested in social welfare in their
endeavors to formulate and enact such meas-
ures of compensation, through industrial in-
surance, old-age pensions for those worn out
in the service, or any other just measure, so
that the victims of accidents, disease, and old
age may be adequately provided for. It is
worth while to note just here that every civi-
lized country in the world has already some
form of compensation through legislation ex-
cept the United States. Of course it should also
be said that some of the States, like Massachu-
setts, New York, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, are
making progress in this direction, while other
States have enacted employers’ liability legis-
lation, which, however, has not proven satis-
factory either to the workers or the employers,
because of the litigation which is usually in-
volved, extending often over a period of years,
and leaving little compensation to the victim
after the expenses of such litigation are paid.
We know also that much of poverty is caused
by the curse of the liquor traffic, through the
saloon, where often the workingman goes to
meet with his union, or work-fellows, and
spends the greater part of his earnings. It is
a very significant fact that the great leaders of
organized labor in this country and in Canada

162 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

have come out squarely against the saloon, if
the reports of the great Toronto convention
held in November, 1909, are correct.

Mr. Samuel Gompers, president of the Amer-
ican Federation of Labor, declared as follows:
‘“‘The time has come when the saloon and the
labor movement must be divorced.’’ Mr. John
Mitchell, formerly president of the United Mine
Workers of America, is quoted as saying thus:
‘Poverty has driven many a strong man to
drink, and drink has driven many a strong man
to poverty. I am not at all impressed with the
argument that if you close down the liquor
traffic you bring about a calamity. Rather the
contrary. There is a readjustment of society.
Nothing has done more to bring misery upon
innocent women and children than the money
spent in drink. No man has a right to spend
a cent upon himself until he has first provided
for his family all the comforts they deserve.
He has no money to spend on drink without
robbing his family. I believe as the labor move-
ment grows so will the temperance movement
grow.’’ Mr. Thomas L. Lewis, president of
the United Mine Workers of America, is also
quoted as saying: ‘‘If you want to know where
the miners of America stand on the temperance
question, I’ll tell you. In our constitution we
have a clause which forbids any member to sell
intoxicants even at a picnic. That’s what we

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SOCIALIZED CHARITY: 3 :°: ° ee
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think of the liquor traffic. ... Because the liquer.
traffic tends to enslave the people, to make them

satisfied with improper conditions, to keep them
ignorant, the leaders of the trade union are
called on to fight the saloon.’’!

Golden words these! and they should be
widely circulated by the public press, pulpit,
and platform, and reéchoed in all our schools,
_ because they give to the labor movement in this
country and its great leaders a viewpoint of
the possibilities for moral uplift to the nation
that has been too little held by the Church and
the public at large with respect to them. We
should, therefore, join forces with organized
labor and all other reform agencies in the move-
ment to destroy this great cause of poverty, the
saloon.

We know also that another prolific cause of
pauperism is the unthinking public, which doles
out charity to every ‘‘hobo’’ at the back door,
or to every intruder on the poor fund in the
churches, without adequate information as to
the worthiness of the case, while there may be
a very efficient charity organization society
within the city that could handle these cases
with efficiency and prevent the spread of the
very thing the public are blindly hoping to cure.
We should, therefore, teach our young people

1See Literary Digest, December 18, 1909, quoting Western
Christian Advocate.

oS Ge. <<! "EB SOCIAL ENGINEER

“< “thes modéim methods of organized charity and

enlist them’ to codperate with all such organiza-
tions as are seriously seeking in an intelligent,
scientific, and yet sympathetic way to perma-
nently relieve society of this perpetual burden.*

Wuat ConcERNING THE AFFLICTED?

We can conceive of some people deliberately
choosing a life of poverty when they discover
how easy it is to impose on the sympathetic who
are able to give and are willing to do so with-
out too many embarrassing questions to the
beggar; but no one would be thought, or accused,
of deliberately choosing any form of affliction
for the sake of imposing upon the public. There
are, of course, some cases on record where per-
sons have voluntarily inflicted wounds for the
sake of effect, but even in such cases a feeble
mind or mental unbalance is usually the con-
tributory cause. There are causes well known
that can be prevented, and hence the obligation
rests upon us to help educate people so that
they will help to prevent them.

We have already mentioned the frequent
cause of total blindness by infection in infancy

1I desire to recommend to those teachers in the Sunday schools
who wish to study the conditions and causes of poverty the reading
of two books by experts in this field: “Misery and Its Causes,” by
Dr. Edward T. Devine, New York; and “Standards of Living,’
by Professor Chapin, of Beloit, Wisconsin, published by the Russell
Sage Foundation, New York.

AS
~

SOCIALIZED CHARITY 165

that may easily be avoided. In those cases
where the remedy is known it is only a matter
of giving that intelligence to the public, and
especially to the ignorantly careless, so that the
proper medical treatment may be applied at
the right time; and, furthermore, we should
encourage by our codperation those fighting
against the social disease that makes such a
misfortune to the innocent possible. Where is
there a better chance to impart this saving
knowledge to the multitudes than in the whole-
some moral atmosphere of the Sunday school
class of young men or women soon to meet the
responsibilities of home life in society?

Those forms of defectiveness that are di-
rectly due to heredity must be prevented by wise
social laws prohibiting the marriage of the unfit
among themselves or with normal stock, so that
such eases will be reduced to a minimum. This
would include the insane, the idiotic, the epi-
leptic, the inebriate, and those afflicted with
certain diseases. Those which are the result of
accidents, nervous strain, and mental anguish,
must be met by wise measures of prevention in
safety devices and safeguards in industry and
in modes of travel and by a change in environ-
ment or occupation, and by the kindly service of
human sympathy and the healing touch of the
divine hand. The people have established in
every State the proper institutions to care for

166 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

the afflicted, and it is our duty as teachers to
know something of these institutions and their
methods of treatment, and to be able to direct
to them those that need their shelter and care.

Wuat ConcEeRNING THE Bap?

Here we have especially to do with a class of
boys and young men (girls are sometimes in-
cluded) called by some ‘‘delinquents’’ for the
sake of euphony, but ordinarily we speak of
them as ‘‘bad’’ boys, or ‘‘rascals.’’ They com-
prise those members of society who are incipient
criminals and yet are not bad enough to be
classed as such, and under no circumstances are
to be treated as criminals. They may be more
definitely designated as those who are brought
before the juvenile courts of our cities and
placed under the care of probation officers, or
are sent to reformatories or other institutions
for correction.

The causes of delinquencies among boys are
discovered to be chiefly in what they have
missed rather than in what they have acquired,
though the latter is often a contributory cause;
for example, the lack of proper educational
methods for boys of surplus energies, who tire
of books easily, but might be held to useful edu-
cational tasks by the use of manual training,
proper athletic sports, and well-directed field
trips to study facts at first hand in nature, in

AS
+

SOCIALIZED CHARITY 167

shops, in stores, and other places where the
world’s work is being carried on. Happily, in
many quarters this is already being done. A
frequent cause of delinquency among young
men is the lack of occupation, due to having
learned no trade. In reading the annual report
of the Elmira Reformatory in New York State
some years ago I learned that over sixty per
cent of the inmates were registered as without
an occupation. We should, therefore, insist
upon every young man learning a trade, or some
useful profession, for his own protection as well
as for the good of the State. We know that in
many districts of our crowded centers of popu-
lation the numbers of cases before the juvenile
courts have been almost eliminated by the open-
ing of a public playground in the neighborhood,
or a public bath, or a roof garden, or basement
gymnasium in the school building, or in the so-
cialized church house in the community.

It is, therefore, a matter of good business
for us to advocate the establishment of these
useful agencies at public expense, which will be
well paid for by the saving in cost of punitive
and correctional institutions and also in the
making of good citizens. Another frequent
cause of badness in boys is the habit of stealing
junk from the railroads passing through the
town and shifting cars on sidings, also of steal-
ing coal and other commodities from cars, and

168 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

that too frequently at the instigation of the junk
dealers themselves, or of unscrupulous parents
who find it an easy way to get on in the world
without work. In such cases the thing to ad-
vocate is the punishment of the guilty junk
dealers and the imposing of proper penalties
upon the guilty parents, as well as putting on
probation the delinquent boys.

Now, why can we not join forces with all
good people who are like-minded and advocate
the same treatment for the saloon keepers who
sell intoxicants to boys, or the proprietors of
dance halls and picture shows who corrupt
young boys and girls by their indecent exhibits?
If we did so, we could succeed in removing the
most prolific causes of badness among the boys
and girls of our cities, if at the same time we
provided more wholesome and happy recreation
for them under Christian auspices.*

In dealing with all these classes under dis-
cussion the social engineer must always keep in
mind the fact that we are living in an intricate
network of social causes which make the prob-
lem of ultimate success a very complex one;
but this fact should not deter us from doing
what we know we can and ought to do for the
welfare of the poor, the afflicted, and the bad.

1I would recommend here the reading of Chapters VI and VII of
my recent book on ‘Social Aspects of Religious Institutions,”
Eaton & Mains, New York.

CHAPTER XV
TEAM WORK FOR THE COMMUNITY

In doing ordinary team work the question is
not merely how to secure and train the individ-
ual men—for we must always use such as we
have—but the question is, rather, how to get
the men we have to work together. For most
churches and Sunday schools the only possible
way to do social work in and for the community
is simply by using the ordinary men and women ~
who live an ordinary workaday life in that same
community. We cannot hope to get all people
to think alike, or to agree on all points con-
nected with any measure for the moral uplift
of the community, but we can get many ordinary
men to unite in some very extraordinary move-
ment for the social betterment of the entire
community. For example, the success of the
temperance movement in this country in dealing
with the saloon and other forms of vice has been
almost entirely due to organized efforts of
groups of very ordinary sincere men.and women
of our church communities.

Tt is true that much depends upon the char-
acter of the leadership we have for team work,
but, after all, success depends ultimately upon

169

170 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

the codperative efforts of the many who are to
be classed as the ordinary people that make up
the rank and file of our communities. In the
high schools and colleges we are accustomed to
team work, and the success of the athletic teams,
debating clubs, and other groups in the life of
the school depends upon several things: first,
upon the personal characteristics of the young
men making the team; secondly, upon the prac-
tice or training in team play; and, thirdly, upon
the support on the side lines from the rank and
file of their comrades in the school or college.
And, furthermore, success often depends upon
the enthusiasm that is created by mass meetings
in the interest of some special game, and by
the ‘‘rooters’’ during the critical moments of
the game. So in carrying on team work by the
young people of the Sunday school and other
church organizations, it is a matter of first im-
portance to select the right persons to do team
work, and they should be given a chance to
practice forms of social service in the com-
munity that will prepare them for the supreme
tasks that require skill and persistent effort.
We might well hold a mass meeting of all the
school or congregation to stimulate the team
in their work, and to interest the many in their
support as well.

One reason why we do not find enthusiasm
in our social work in many quarters, like that

aS
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TEAM WORK FOR THE COMMUNITY 171

we find in college athletics, is largely due to the
fact that we do not take our work seriously
enough. We somehow talk in a general way
about our duties in the community, and expect
every individual to start a little movement all
by himself for the welfare of the many, when
as a matter of common experience in other lines
of work we see men doing things successfully
by organizing a few to do a specific task, and by
giving them in the doing of it the support of
the many. Here is an example of what I mean:
T know a church in a large city where they have
one large Bible class of men numbering about
one hundred and twenty. Now, this class is or-
ganized, having a president, several vice-presi-
dents, a secretary, and a treasurer, Member-
ship Committee, ete. But so far as I know from
observing its work as thus organized for several
years, it made no use of these one hundred and
twenty men for any purpose whatever in that
large city, except now and then an appeal was
made for their support as individual workers in
buttonholing somebody for Rally Day, or to se-
eure his membership in the class, when, to my
way of thinking, several teams for social service
in the community could have been developed out
of that body of strong young men. What was
actually done in the case referred to is this: the
men were taught the Sunday school lessons
in a very interesting way, and the truths they

172 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

learned were all useful and good, but they were
practically of little value because the men were
given nothing to do in a specific way to develop
moral character. The result was that every
year many men dropped out of the class, and
others were gathered in, and so from the mere
view of the class as conducted it was a success,
but from the viewpoint of work accomplished
for that community, and in training men for
team work in social service, it was an entire
failure.

How to Proceep

One of the first things necessary to be done
in getting our young men and women organized
to perform deeds of a social character in a com-
munity is to show them impressively the social
nature of conduct, good or bad, by giving them
concrete examples of actual good results to the
community of any specific form of social serv-
ice. It is not sufficient for us to have in mind
simply the words of the ritual with respect to
the world, the flesh, and the devil, but we must
be led to see the concrete examples of their ac-
tivities in the town where we live before we
are likely to be aroused to the necessity of doing
anything for. our neighbors, either in an indi-
vidual way or in group organization for the
real improvement of the community.

1. Team work against tuberculosis. A group

ae
~2

TEAM WORK FOR THE COMMUNITY 173

of young men and women might be chosen from
any one of our adult Bible classes to make a
study of the social character of this disease in
so far as the community is concerned. Such a
group could bring to the attention of the entire
church community the facts so well known with
reference to the character and treatment of this
greatest of all plagues known to men, if we are
to judge from the annual death rate from this
cause. They could show how this is a communi-
cable disease, and how it is a preventable dis-
ease, and also how in many cases it is a curable
disease. If people are not interested in city
ordinances prohibiting spitting in public con-
veyances, or upon the floors of public buildings,
or upon the sidewalks, such a group could dem-
onstrate how directly the bacilli of this disease
may be communicated directly to the child play-
ing upon the street, or to the home, by direct
contact with sputum upon shoes or skirts, so
that the child playing upon the carpet in the
home may be directly inoculated. Such a team
could do preventive work by demonstrating
methods of fresh-air treatment, or assisting in-
cipient cases to reach the sanitarium, or pre-
ventorium, before it is too late to effect a cure.
It could also in a judicious way distribute infor-
mational literature, and paste in proper places
placards giving sane caution to the unthinking
in the community with respect to prevention

174 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

and treatment of the disease. In short, such a
group of workers could do almost everything
that could be done to cooperate with the modern
movement which may be characterized as a war
against this form of disease. Another group of
well-chosen men and women could do a similar
work in preventing other social diseases in so
far as they are the result of ignorance or cul-
pable negligence, and also to help all good citi-
zens in breaking up the so-called ‘‘white-slave
traffic,’’ especially in our large cities, but also
drawing into its meshes the unsuspecting inno-
cents of the rural districts, or the inexperienced
immigrants.

2. Team work for public health. If people in
the community have no interest in supporting
proposed municipal legislation for a bureau of
sanitation and public health, another team
should be organized to show to them the danger
from dirty streets, unsanitary tenements, im-
pure milk supply, and the accompanying high
death rate among infants who are the victims.
They could secure a comparative set of death
rates in cities where such inspection is made
and in cities where it is not made. Also photo-
graphs and charts could be secured, giving a
graphic demonstration of the actual conditions
which exist and of the conditions desired.
Typhoid fever is a preventable disease, and
may be called a disease of dirt, and yet how

TEAM WORK FOR THE COMMUNITY 175

many victims there are each year from this dis-
ease due to impure water supply! And how
many people fail to know the relation between
carelessness at summer resorts with reference
to sewage disposal near the water supply and
this dreadful disease! What more Christlike
service could any group of young folk render a
community than making known to people other-
wise intelligent the ways of avoiding such forms
of contagion which have such dire social con-
sequences?

3. Team work in social-service departments
of hospitals. The social engineer should or-
ganize in every church a group of young people
who would be able to codperate with the phy-
sicians in treating those cases in the hospitals
which need social treatment as well as medical.
For example, a case is under treatment in the
hospital. It is a mother suffering from ‘‘nerv-
ous dyspepsia,’’ but the real cause of her
malady is a wayward son. Now, the modern
physician knows full well that a permanent cure
demands the rescue of that son to a normal
moral life, so he calls on the social-service de-
partment of the hospital to take up that phase
of the effective treatment where his art finds
its limitations. So for a thousand and one vary-
ing cases that have a more remote or an imme-
diate social factor which is causal to the chief
difficulty. Here is a splendid field for our

176 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

strong young men and women to do a Christian
service in carrying out His program for all who
suffer. Such a group would find many oppor-
tunities of presenting to the unfortunate for the
first time, or for the most critical time, the Great
Physician who can heal the soul as well as
the body. Other cases would come before this
group of social workers that would reveal the
close relation of human ills to some of the eco-
nomic problems of the present. Here is a man
being treated for the loss of his right hand, or
the loss of a leg, or for some other injury that
will incapacitate him as the breadwinner for a
family of six children and an invalid wife.
Here arises the question of compensation, or in-
surance, in the case of accidents in industry;
child labor may be also involved, and the stand-
ards of living.

Such a group could secure the information
that would make the entire church community
more intelligent in its advocacy of social re-
forms and would lead many a man in industry
to be more charitable toward his employees.’

4. Team work against juvenile delinquency.
In the previous chapter we stated that many
boys were delinquent not by virtue of what they
had acquired but by virtue of what they had

1 For a study of team work for the sick in hospitals, read “Social
Service and the Art of Healing,” by Cabat. Compare Knopp,
“Tuberculosis a Preventable and Curable Disease.”

aS:

TEAM WORK FOR THE COMMUNITY 177

missed, and we showed how in our cities there
were many cases of delinquency because the
boys had no opportunities provided for the
gratification of normal and worthy youthful
desires. Now, it seems to me that we could
render a useful service to the community if we
had in every church a group of social workers
who would make it their chief aim to champion
the cause of this large class of boys in the com-
munity who really need the help and advice of a
- big brother. They could secure for the boys a
place to play ball in summer or a place to skate
in winter on some vacant lot in a depression
easily flooded from the water main at little ex-
pense; also places of shelter and warmth, as
well. as for reading and recreation in winter
for the newsboys, and those without proper
amusement at home in the tenements, and who
would be otherwise found on the streets or in
the saloons or gambling resorts of the greater
cities. There is no reason why certain rooms
in the public school building should not be
utilized for such purposes under proper man-
agement at little or no extra expense save
that of lighting, which would be a small item,
compared with the good accomplished and the
expenses of prosecutions in the juvenile court.
5. Team work by men to save the boys from
leaving the Sunday school and Church during
the first years of adolescence. I do not think

178 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

any intelligent worker in the Sunday school
needs to be told that a great many of the boys
who were in the Sunday schools of the city until
they were twelve or fourteen are now entirely
out of touch with the Sunday school and Church,
especially those whose parents are not mem-
bers of the Church. It seems to me that here
is one of the most fruitful fields of social serv-
ice where team work by the men of the Bible
classes is needed most. Asa matter of observa-
tion, and of recollection of my own boyhood,
I think it can be stated as an axiom that boys
from fourteen to eighteen like to be with men.
Now, I am not sure but that it would be a wise
move in many of the Sunday schools to admit
boys to men’s classes, or at least to put all boys
at that age in charge of men, and invite other
strong young men to join these classes as social |
workers. In any case, we should inaugurate
some such movement to keep the boys from leav-
ing the school when they need the Sunday school
most. Here is a field of work that demands a
special type of social engineer, and the sooner
we get men into training in every community
for such work the sooner we will see all our
Church activities better proportioned with men.

6. Team work in church federation. There
might well be another group in every church
whose chief work should be the study of the
problems of interdenominational unity and fed-

—*

TEAM WORK FOR THE COMMUNITY 179

eration in all matters pertaining to the work
of the kingdom of God. This group should
know all occasions in the life of the community,
and in the welfare of the State and nation, when
it is possible for the churches to stand together
and to work together for the same end. In cases
of municipal reform, such as the election of ex-
cise commissioners or the board of aldermen,
who have in charge the business of the city gov-
ernment, it should be made impossible for a
boodling minority to control in the councils of
the parties so that dishonest men should even
have a chance of election by being nominated.
So in all matters of public policy there should
be no uncertainty as to where the churches of
Christ will stand on any measure involving the
morals of the nation.

7. Team work in relating the Church to the
industrial problems of the present. In many
communities there should be groups of strong
young men representing the employers and the
employees in the industrial pursuits of the peo-
ple, so that everybody may be able to judge for
himself what is just and equal in any dispute
as to wages and hours of work, as well as the
conditions of labor, between any two industrial
groups. This subject we will treat more at
length in a subsequent chapter.

All this involves the awakening of the social
consciousness in men so that they will see the

180 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

importance of social service and the social
significance of individual group effort for the
welfare of the community. I do not claim that
we need more organizations to get men in our
churches to do social service, but we need more
organization. Some will say, however, that all
these tasks mentioned above for team work
cannot be carried on by the Church. I admit
this is true in many churches as they are now
managed, but my point is this, that the Church
should be so organized and conducted that these
tasks could be performed by it. Unless we do
this kind of work our Bible teaching will not be
a living message.

CHAPTER XVI
THE CITY PROBLEM

Durine the last quarter of the nineteenth
century the greater currents of population
movement within our national domain were to-
ward the cities, so that we have as a result what
is termed the congestion of population with all
its accompanying ills—summed up in that one
ugly word ‘‘slum.’’ In religious work many
people have come to look on the modern city as
a ‘‘challenge’’ to Christian civilization and look
upon the city as a menace to Christianity it-
self.t Some even go so far as to say that were
it not for the constant recruits from the rural
districts of church members with religious fer-
vor many of our churches would lose altogether
that element of Christian efficiency which is
based upon a healthy emotionalism called ‘‘re-
ligious fervor.’? But we find also in modern
times a counter movement from the cities to the
suburbs, resulting in that ever-increasing group
of sturdy cultured folk known as the “‘com-
muters”’ or the ‘‘suburbanites.’’ It is here that
we find some of our most successful church en-
terprises to-day.

1 Compare “‘The Challenge of the City,” by Josiah Strong.
181

182 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

But when we come to study more closely the
character of this new type, we discover that it
is made up largely of those who in former years
moved from the country to the city, or are their
direct descendants, and we also learn that an-
other class, the ‘‘submerged tenth’’ of the orig-
inal country folk, and the incoming aliens from
other shores, or natives from other centers of
population, make up the congested population
groups that furnish the problem we have here
to consider.

Tur Crry Not a Menace

In the first place, I wish to state that the city,
unless abused by commercialism, is not a men-
ace to civilization, but a blessing. The fact of
the city in modern times as compared with the
unstable life of earlier times, when few great
cities were built and when the majority of the
population lived in rural communities, is a
justification for its existence as a good to hu-
manity, for in the long run human nature will
not persist in the pursuit of that which is not
ultimately for its highest good.

What, then, is there about the modern city
that presents a social problem of such magni-
tude as that of the ‘‘congestion of population’’?
1 believe it is not the city in itself but the abuse
of the privilege the city offers that is the real
menace to Christian civilization. The privilege

THE CITY PROBLEM 183

of being in the crowd leads some to the abuse of
exploiting their neighbor’s necessities for their
own gain without regard to the restraints of
social justice. Consider the privilege of the
presence of the crowd whose appetites and pas-
sions may be played upon for blood money in
the traffic of vice! So we witness the ‘‘white-
slave trade,’’ the brothel, the saloon, the dive,
the gambling den, and their distressed victims.
We have also, as a result of the abuse of the
privilege of presence, the ‘‘sweatshop’’ or the
‘‘sweating system’’—the factory employing
women and children at a very low wage; we
see also the tenement system, the lodging house,
the soup-kitchen, the pushcart—all seeking gain
from the privilege of presence. In fact, we are
led to see at once that the ills to society from
overcrowding are directly due to a very worthy
economic motive, but that this motive is often
misdirected. What we are after is to give ita
true function and a true motive.

Tre Fact or CoNGESTION

During the wonderful Exhibit of Congestion
of Population held in New York city during the
month of March, 1908, the leading facts of
congestion were very graphically presented by
models, charts, maps, statistical tables, lectures,
ete. One of the most striking and impressive
devices was that of an arrangement of birdshot

184 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

on a physiographic model map, each small shot
representing a person in the crowded condition
of Manhattan Island, so that in some of the
great tenement blocks ‘‘downtown’’ the shot
were laid nearly an inch thick, showing how
crowded would be the actual population if all
were suddenly compelled to seek the ground
floor in case of fire, or other serious cause.
Model tenement blocks were also exhibited,
showing the condition of tenement life before
the new tenement laws for improvement in con-
struction went into effect, and also those repre-
senting the kind now required by law.

A description of Model No. 1, as representing
actual conditions January 1, 1900, in a certain
block in New York city, will be of interest to the
reader, and will impressively illustrate the
problem. This block then included thirty-nine
tenement houses, containing 605 different apart-
ments, occupied by 2,781 persons, of whom 2,315
were over five years of age, and 469 under
five years of age. It contained 1,588 rooms,
but not one bath; only 40 apartments were sup-
plied with hot water. There were 441 dark
rooms having no ventilation to the outer air,
and no light or air except that derived from
other rooms, and 635 rooms getting their sole
light and air from dark and narrow air shafts.
During five years there were reckoned from this
block alone 32 cases of tuberculosis, and during

ae

THE CITY PROBLEM 185

one year 13 cases of diphtheria. In addition te
this there were during the five years mentioned
665 different applications for charitable relief
from the inhabitants of this block, while the
gross rentals per year amounted to $113,964."

In contrast to this was exhibited Model 3,
called the ‘‘New Law’’ tenement, the kind now
erected under the law of 1901. This model has
the following advantages: There are no dark
rooms, no narrow air shafts. These tenements
are provided with courts and yards large
enough to give sufficient light and air on every
floor, and each apartment is provided with good
individual sanitary accommodations and rea-
sonable protection from fire.

There were also exhibited in life size the
sweatshop rooms where little girls sit all day,
fifteen in one small room, making artificial
flowers for two cents a dozen.

Another model showed eight persons sleep-
ing at night in one small room with three beds,
some of these persons being boarders.

Another striking fact of congestion was a
silhouette entitled ‘‘From School Teacher to
Policeman’’—showing the crowded condition of
the public schools which made it necessary to
turn away some of the children, who, left to play
in the streets, naturally fell into the hands of

1 These statistics are taken from a folder printed and distributed
at the time of the exhibit.

186 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

the policeman after getting into mischief. So
much for the fact of the congestion of popula-
tion in our large cities.

Tre REesuLts oF CoNGESTION

It is well for us to ask here, What are some
of the results of this overcrowding of popula-
tion in these tenement districts of the cities?
One of the most striking and impressive is the
increased mortality of infants in these crowded
sections. Another result is the ravages of tu-
berculosis and other diseases due to the lack of
proper sanitation, absence of light and fresh
air, in the inner dark rooms of these structures.
Still another result is the weakened constitu-
tions, dwarfed physique, due to bad housing and
lack of wholesome food. This has been proven
by the actual measurements of groups of school
children in these sections, and comparisons
made with measurements of similar groups
under more favorable conditions.

The increased statistics of vice and crime
may be directed to these tenement blocks, these
crimes being due not to the inherent wickedness
of these people, but, rather, to the lack of the
natural uplift they should have received in a
different environment.

Another appalling result of congestion of
population is the ravages of that class of dis-
eases we call venereal, which are the result of

aS

THE CITY PROBLEM 187

the vice of unlawful sex-relationship. At a
dinner given to a group of social workers in
New York some time ago I heard a reputable
physician say that there are in Greater New
York annually 50,000 new cases of this dreadful
disease, and many of these cases are innocent
women and children who are unwittingly af-
fected by the overcrowding due to taking in
boarders, and the resulting unsanitary condi-
tions of these dwellings. These are only some
of the evil results of overcrowding, but they
will serve our purpose to show that we have a
real problem of social conditions in our great
cities for the Church to help solve, and we know
to-day pretty well why we have these conditions
existing.

Tur Causes oF CONGESTION

Some one will ask, ‘‘If these results are so
appalling, why, then, do people crowd into these
tenements in such fashion?’’ It will be impos-
sible in this short review to relate all the causes
which result in congestion, but we may name
among the chief ones the following:

In the first instance the great city itself is
an attractive force constantly drawing from the

1¥For a confirmation of these facts see an interesting paper de-
livered before the American Sociological Society at Atlantic City
in December, 1908, published in the American Journal of Sociology
for April, 1909. Compare also Warbasse, “Medical Sociology,”
chap. viii.

188 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

rural districts and from the smaller towns. The
statistics of the growth of cities from decade to
decade prove that the city itself tends to reach
a condition of overcrowding. Men and women
as individuals, and even whole families, will
crowd into the great cities when all available
economic opportunities have been taken, and
many of these are compelled to segregate to the
slum.

Secondly, industry will go where there is
labor in abundance, and where there is a market
for the output, or good facilities for shipment
by railroads or by steamship lines to distant
points. This means that the people who work
in the shops or mills must live near them, for a
meager wage and long hours forbid them the
comforts of the suburbanites. Besides, there
is often lack of rapid transit for such as they
at the rush hours of the day. The laboring man
or woman cannot afford to be late, for another
is often waiting to take the job if he or she
is absent for a day, or is not prompt in the per-
formance of duty. Lack of transit or cheap
fares may therefore be considered as another
cause of congestion, for the reason that the
more roomy and healthy suburbs are not within
reach of the workingman of this class.

A third reason for overcrowding in tenements
is the high rents in the city. This in many cases
takes more than one quarter of the poor man’s

BS

THE CITY PROBLEM 189

income, hence such families are often driven to
the necessity of taking in boarders at great in-
convenience and risk of morals and health for
the sake of keeping up the rent. Therefore it is
not surprising that many families will live in
overcrowded rooms in spite of the law prohibit-
ing such a practice.

Race affinity among foreigners is another
frequent cause of overcrowding. This impels
them to take in their landsmen temporarily or
permanently because of the condition of many
of them when they reach the port of entry, and
also because they are not wanted in other sec-
tions of the city or country where there pre-
dominates a different racial type and corre-
sponding racial prejudices.

Still another cause of overcrowding among
the foreigners in the city is the lack of hos-
pitals, schools, and churches, and the absence
of neighborly sympathy in many of the rural
towns and villages, and upon the farm where
the workers are needed, wages are good, the air
and sunlight are cheap, but where brotherly
sympathy for the alien is too often wanting.
When accident occurs in a mine or quarry, or
upon the farm, or when sickness comes, there
are no facilities for relief, and it is, therefore,
no wonder that these laborers crowd the cities,
where such facilities are available, and where
their children have an equal chance with the

190 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

children of the natives in the schools and in the
churches, and where there is something to give
them amusement and diversion from the weari-
ness of hard labor.

These are the chief causes of congestion,
apart from the ignorance and vice that blind
many of these unfortunates to something bet-
ter within their reach.

Tur Reiger or CONGESTION

The way out of difficulty is always hard to
find because people usually go into difficulty
blindly. In general, I would say that the way
to solve any difficult social problem is first to
get at the causes of the difficulty to be met, and
then seek to correct the errors or to eliminate
the causes altogether, and by so doing we
usually reach a practicable solution of our diffi-
culties. So with the problem of congestion of
population in our great cities: we must know
the causes and eliminate them. We cannot,
however, always do this in a radical and revo-
-lutionary way, for we would create thereby
greater evils than we hope to cure.

In the first place, we must make the city less
attractive to the many by making the country.
and villages more attractive and desirable for
residence, and at the same time more available
to those who work in the city but already desire
to live in the suburbs. Much has already been

Be
=F

THE CITY PROBLEM 191

done, and much more is being done by the im-
provement of the country roads, the establish-
ment by the postal service of free rural de-
livery, the introduction of the telephone, the
improvement of the schools, the establishment
of country and village hospitals, the inaugura-
tion of improved methods of agriculture which
enable the farmer to more readily secure an in-
dependent living and educate his family, and
the establishment of the College of Agriculture,
that is lifting the occupation of farming to the
plane of a profession. The establishment of
better police protection to the citizens of the
rural districts has also contributed much to-
ward making the country districts more de-
sirable for residence. This will give the poor
man a feeling of security with respect to life
and property, as well as to his rights as a citizen
of the State. All this would greatly stem the
tide of migration from country to city, and
would greatly increase the productivity of the
farm, and, in many sections, reduce the cost of
living by increased production of the neces-
saries of life available to these population
centers.

A second measure of relief is that of improv-
ing the housing conditions by legislation and its
rigorous enforcement against the abuse of
grasping landlords or careless tenants whose
avariciousness and stupidity have made these

192 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

conditions possible. Some relief is also given
by the opening up of parks, as at ‘‘Mulberry
Bend’? in New York, in the most congested
quarters. But these give only breathing spaces;
the people must return to their crowded homes
under the same conditions. Another measure
of temporary relief is the opening of public
school buildings for social purposes, the build-
ing of roof gardens and playgrounds, recreation
piers, etc., also night schools, where are taught
better methods of living and ways of betterment
by self-initiative..

Another effective remedy is the encouraging
of the building of factories in the suburbs, thus
drawing away from the crowded centers of tene-
ment population. It is claimed for New York
city and its adjacent populous centers in New
Jersey, that when the proposed tunnels and
bridges and railroad facilities leading far into
the country districts are completed, it will be
possible for vast numbers of the well-to-do now
living in the city to move into the suburbs, thus
leaving vacant better apartments for the aspir-
ing, and later cheapening the rent for such, and
correspondingly reducing the rental value of
the tenements in the now congested quarters,
making it no longer necessary for the wage-
workers to take in boarders. The cheapening
of fares to the suburbs will make it possible for
even the ‘‘dinner-pail’’ class to live in the coun-

Ea

THE CITY PROBLEM 193

try and reach the city in time for their daily
tasks, especially in those industries that have
reduced the hours of labor to an eight-hour day.
Codperative tenement-house and home-build-
ing companies offer encouraging relief for
some. The distribution of immigrants by the
new Department of Information in the Bureau
of Immigration will greatly help to relieve the
overcrowding in colonies of the same races in
the cities. Institutions established by the Chris-
tian denominations, like that conducted by the
United Hebrew Charities for the distribution of
Jewish immigrants to economic opportunities
in agricultural and industrial and other pur-
suits, would greatly aid in the solution of the
problem. During the six years from 1901 to
1907 the Hebrew Society removed over 30,000
persons, 28,000 of whom were sent from New
York city.
* Better wages and fewer hours per day, so as
to give time for the culture of the mind in better
ways of living and thinking, will be the best
method of relieving many who now are awake
to their needs but lack the chance to realize
their hopes. We see, therefore, that the prob-
lem of congestion of population can be solved
if we will do all we can to promote the meas-
ures thereto that we know.

CHAPTER XVII
PREVENTIVE SOCIAL ENGINEERING

THERE is no subject in the minds of social
workers to-day in every field of philanthropic
effort of greater importance than that of pre-
vention. In the medical profession, where we
have been wont to think there was too little
interest given to the prevention of diseases, we
to-day hear this most significant and hopeful
note of progress: ‘‘The plea that goes out to the
public from the great heart of the medical pro-
fession to-day is that prevention shall take the
place of cure. Medical knowledge has reached
that point when much of it can be taken by the
public, and without medical aid, applied to the
end of preventing diseases.’”? ‘‘Again ard
again medicine appeals to the people to take the
measures necessary to stop typhoid, tubercu-
losis, yellow fever, plague, cholera, gonorrhea,
syphilis, and the many other destructive dis-
eases which are clearly preventable.’ ‘‘If,”?
says Dr. Warbasse, ‘‘as much money and enter-
prise as have been bestowed upon hospitals
were devoted to preventing the diseases which
are treated in hospitals, the hospitals would be
~ 1 See “Medical Sociology,” by Warbasse, pp. x, xi of the Preface.

194

ae

-_*

PREVENTIVE SOCIAL ENGINEERING 195

much less important figures than they are at
the present.’”!

Nowhere have we seen in modern times a
better illustration of this principle in practice
by the medical profession than in the Japanese
army during the war with Russia. And one
of the most hopeful signs of the times is the
great foundations now established by men of
great wealth for the study of the causes and
prevention of many of the diseases which afflict
mankind. Besides, we have also the splendid
work of the national and State governments
that are endeavoring to carry on a similar
beneficent work for humanity.”

PREVENTION OF GERMINAL DISEASES

Now, it is not necessary that the multitudes
of young men and women of our communities
should be trained in the technique of the medi-
cal profession in order to be efficient in the work
of prevention, but many of them can engage in
this work by using the knowledge already given
out in such simple form that the most unskilled
layman can do something to help in the preven-
tion of germinal diseases. For example, when
by a thorough analysis by an expert the water
supply of a city is declared contaminated with

1 See “Medical Sociology,” by Warbasse, p. 26.

2 Compare also “Report on Death Rates in the City of Panama,

of the Canal Zone, and of the Canal Employees.” New York Trib-
une, November 9, 1910.

196 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

typhoid germs, it does not require medical at-
tention to boil the water before using, or to vote
for the building of a filter plant by the city, or
advocate an ordinance controlling the water-
shed supplying the reservoir. Again, when the
medical profession has proven beyond a doubt
that yellow fever is carried from one person to
another by infectious mosquitoes, it does not re-
quire an expert to inform the common people
how to sleep under screens, or how to sterilize
the breeding places of this pest. If we know
that tuberculosis can be prevented by fresh air
and fresh eggs, it does not require very much
technique to give the information to the masses
of the people in every community that will en-
able them to prevent this scourge, or to arrest
it in its incipient stages. So it seems to me that
one of the most useful services we could render
as workers in the community would be active co-
operation with the Anti-Tuberculosis Associa-
tion of the State, or with the local committee in
the town or city in which we dwell, in spreading
health-maintaining and health-restoring infor-
mation among the masses of the people. The
churches need not wait for some outside associa-
tion to take the lead in this work. They could
readily get together and conduct an exhibit and
educate a whole town on the subject of all pre-
ventable diseases.

Another case where preventive work in so-

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PREVENTIVE SOCIAL ENGINEERING 197

cial service may be carried on in many com-
munities is that of those germinal diseases due
to unlawful sex-relationship. In view of the
character of these diseases, it is almost impos-
sible for the social worker to do anything to-
ward their cure, hence all his efforts as a
layman must be exerted along the lines of
prevention. A medical authority of high
standing has stated that in New York city in
1901, 162,372 cases of these shocking diseases
were treated in the private practice of phy-
sicians.1 These figures—and many others as
appalling that could be given—should arouse
the public to the necessity of casting off any
notions it may have of mock modesty, and tak-
ing up in earnest the work of prevention of one
of the greatest social evils that have vitally
touched human life in every period of history.
‘‘Let us not make the mistake of saying that
this is a filthy subject, and that we cannot touch
it. I have heard this said by those who, while
professing to fight evil, confined the fight to
nice, genteel evils which are chiefly matters of
the imagination and of belief. No, it is a clean
and glorious thing to say the word that shall
save a young man or woman from invalidism
and moral discouragement. There are things
to be said and things to be done which should
be said frankly and done boldly.’”

1See Warbasse, “Sociology,” p. 79. 2 Warbasse, op. cit., p. 81.

198 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

I cannot conceive of a father or mother who
would on any reasonable grounds refuse to in-
form his son or her daughter of the dangers
and how to avoid them. Likewise I cannot
admit that wise teachers of adolescent boys and
girls in the Sunday schools and high schools,
knowing the facts, should fail to give them
the information that would prevent them from
going blindly into the ways of sin.

PREVENTION OF DRUNKENNESS

There is no field of preventive work that has
taken on such proportions as that of the tem-
perance movement. In this movement the
churches are already enlisted, but there are cer-
tain phases of service that could well be under-
taken by the people of the community who are
dominated by Christian motives. Some people
have sought to justify the existence of the sa-
loon because of its significance as a social center
for a large class of people, who, because of their
family life, or the lack of it, have no other place
to go for social recreation. Now, there is little
hope of succeeding with any large number of
those who already have acquired the drink
habit, but it is possible for us to provide social
centers, under the auspices of the best elements
in the community, that will be a substitute for
the saloon as a social rendezvous, and at the
same time prevent the acquiring of the habit.

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PREVENTIVE SOCIAL ENGINEERING 199

Still another phase of preventive work that
promises to count for most, in my judgment,
is the creation of the moral-political issue of the
abolishing of the saloon in such a way that good
men and women, irrespective of any other mo-
tive, will be convinced that here is an issue that
any political party that stands for good gov-
ernment must adopt. It has been largely the
result of such a view that prohibition of the
traffic has been secured in most of the territory
now ‘‘dry.’’

Another phase of prevention is represented
by that large number of men who want to over-
come the habit, but have not the social bond that
will keep them keyed up to resolution in the
hour of temptation. Take, for example, a fine
mechanic, as fine an old man as you would want
to meet, who had not ‘‘touched a drop’’ for six
months; but in the midst of an important work
on a contract for painting a new house was
tempted to drink at an ‘‘Trish wake’’ one even-
ing—and down he went to the level of the beast
for two months, until he had lost his job and
some of his best friends. Now, his family spent
much, and so did he, in rectifying the evil re-
sults of his debauch, but would it not have been
infinitely wiser to guard him at the moment of
the initial temptation, and thus prevent such a
humiliating experience? So I believe that in
every community, where such cases are known,

200 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

it would be possible for a group of young men
to guard such a man in such moments until
his ne process is again dominated by saner
motives. If he were given to spells of insanity,
his friends would have guarded him; why
not in the case of an inebriate, when the results
of conduct are so disastrous to the family or
community both from a moral and an economic
point of view? :

Still another phase of prevention of drunken-
ness is in the study of the causes which pro-
duce the physical and nervous conditions which
cause the craving for stimulants and result in
permanent cases of inebriety. In such cases
the work of prevention must be more complex,
reaching to the changing of the conditions of
occupation and of housing that are causal to
such nervous and physical disability. Now, it
is easier to create enthusiasm for the treatment
of the results of certain causes than it is to
arouse people to prevent the causes themselves
or remove them. Here is where intelligent dis-
cussion leads to more vital results. It is cer-
tain that if the people of the community could
be led to see the possibility of removing the
causes of any specific evil, they would be as
enthusiastic in their service of prevention as
they are in the treatment of the more spectacu-
lar and impressive results that are immediately
seen and felt.

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PREVENTIVE SOCIAL ENGINEERING 201

PREVENTIVE CRIMINOLOGY

Apart from a life of impurity, there is no evil
from which it is more difficult to rescue a man
than that of crime, hence the greater need for
preventive social engineering in his behalf.
The emphasis to-day in enlightened penology
is placed upon keeping the man out of prison as
long as possible, for we know that in the ma-
jority of cases prison life tends to make men
more criminal on their release than before they
entered prison. In most instances of crime we
find that somebody has been trying to gratify
a normal desire in an abnormal or unlawful
way, and this gives us the clue to preventive
work in this field, namely, the providing for the
incipient criminal the things which he has
missed. Take, for example, the practice of theft
or robbery: it begins with some simple act in
childhood where normal cravings are met by the
youth unrestrained, and the result is an abnor-
mal habit which results in the practice of law-
lessness. The reverse of this has been dis-
covered in cities where institutions have been
established to provide the apparatus for meet-
ing these normal desires of childhood, resulting
in the elimination of juvenile crime in a whole
district. The boys’ club and the municipal play-
ground furnish us examples of these beneficent
results. In such institutions things that boys

202 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

desire are provided in an institutional way with-
out the stigma of charity, while the temptation
to steal is removed, or to trespass is made
undesirable. Another phase of prevention of
crime is the rebuking of incipient wrongdoing.
This is especially true of the children of for-
eigners in this country. From recent statistics
taken from the records of one of our large cities,
while the largest per cent of adult crimes were
committed by native Americans, yet the large
majority of juvenile offenses were committed
by the children of foreigners. I think much of
this is due to the fact that we do not rebuke
initial wrongdoing. For example, in one of our .
suburban towns the children of foreigners are
often seen taking fruits, vegetables, flowers,
etc., from the gardens, lawns, and orchards of
the citizens, unrebuked by the owners for fear
of exciting the enmity of their parents, or the
members of the ‘‘Black Hand.’’ Now, it is not
difficult to see that such conduct unchecked
would soon lead to taking property of greater
value, and what was a mere juvenile misde-
meanor may, in adult life, become a serious
crime. Hence it seems to me that preventive
work among this class becomes an imperative
duty. It cannot be expected, however, that such
preventive work can be carried on successfully
by individuals here and there, without any con-
certed effort. There must be the support of the

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PREVENTIVE SOCIAL ENGINEERING 203

like-minded and the impersonal element of the
organization to make such work effective. For
instance, it is not possible to stop eruelty to
children by depending on the individuals of a
neighborhood for convincing evidence, but a
society like the Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Children can and does carry on the
work of prevention in a very efficient way
through the power of organization.

PREVENTIVE WoRK FOR DEFECTIVES

Here we have in mind especially the insane,
the idiotic, and the blind. Preventive work for
all these is largely that of information. When
we know that the facts of idiocy, and in many
eases insanity, are due to defective parentage,
it reduces itself to a question of prevention of
the marriage or cohabitation of the unfit. Many
of the States have laws which do prohibit such
marriages, but there is lacking that public opin-
ion in many places that alone can make such
legislation effective. In the case of total blind-
ness we know that more than one third are
directly caused by a disease contracted in the
eye of the infant at birth which could have been
cured by a simple known remedy, if the mother
or attendant had been acquainted with the fact.
Here is a chance to do ‘‘greater works’’ than
the healing of blindness by preventing blind-
ness. We may not hope even to heal one blind

204: THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

Bartimeus by the wayside, but it was within
the power of enlightened Christian society to
prevent more than one third of the fifty thou-
sand cases of total blindness in the institutions
for blindness in the State of New York alone,
to say nothing of the thousands elsewhere. Our
task in such cases is the spread of preventive
knowledge that has healing in its appropriate
use.

If we know that certain lines of conduct or
mental strain produce insanity, it is only a small
part of our duty to provide for the victims—our
chief task should be the prevention of that con-
duct and the cessation of that mental strain.

PREVENTIVE WorkK AGAINST PAUPERISM

It must be understood at the outset that a
poor man is not necessarily a pauper, but it is
quite an easy thing for a poor man to be made
a pauper. The prevention of poverty is an
economic question of the greatest social signifi-
cance and would require a treatise in itself for
an adequate discussion, but the prevention of
pauperism is a social question that most indi-
viduals can readily help solve. We have to-day
established in most of our large cities charity
organization societies which are conducted upon
scientific and humane principles for dealing
with the pauper, and it is only a matter of com-
mon sense that we should utilize such institu-

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PREVENTIVE SOCIAL ENGINEERING 205

tions in dealing with any specific case rather
than trust to our own inexperience and hap-
hazard methods of dealing with them at the
door. What possible harm can come to a worthy
case if escorted to headquarters ?—while at the
same time possible evil both to the man and to
the community could be perpetuated by giving
without due investigation. When we know by
scientific investigation of thousands of cases
that ninety-five per cent of all cases of begging
at the door are unworthy paupers, is it not time
we cease being worried over the feelings of the
possible five per cent who could receive even
better treatment at the hands of trained work-
ers in an organization? Here, it seems to me,
is where the ‘‘war on tramps’’ should be prose-
cuted with vigor. But we are not unmindful of
preventive work to be done by our educational
system, and by other forms of constructive so-
cial service, in preventing the tramp habit being
formed, as it so often is on ‘‘ Railroad Street,”’
in all the towns along these great thoroughfares.

CHAPTER XVIII
PREVENTIVE SALVATION

We have found in the treatment of specific
social problems so far that the modern worker
in the fields of charity and philanthropy is
turning his attention to the study of prevention
rather than that of cure. This has been
brought about by the fact of the growing need
of an increased budget for dealing with the
victims of the social ills of modern civilization.
In almost every State where the people are
alert to the problem of charity there is at
every meeting of the Legislature some meas-
ure proposed which involves the increase in the
charity budget. Buildings of larger dimensions,
grounds more spacious, workers more efficient,
and in larger numbers, experts in every field,
all are demanded in modern times to meet the
situation so well understood. All this has led
logically and inevitably to the study of the
problem of preventive salvation in the field of
philanthropy and charity, the study of prevent-
able causes that make all this work necessary.

The nation has recently awakened to the idea
of conservation of our natural resources by the
same process of reasoning and experience. Men

206

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PREVENTIVE SALVATION 207

who have observed the expense involved in dis-
astrous floods caused by denuded water-sheds
through the destruction of forest, through un-
scientific forestry, through preventable forest
fires—often due to the careless hunter, or more
frequently to locomotives emitting sparks from
their unprotected funnels on an up grade—or by
reckoning the cost of fuel and building ma-
terial by wasteful methods of mining and lum-
bering—such men to-day are turning the nation
to the study of preventive salvation of our
natural resources.

Also in the work of the Church men of far-
seeing spiritual statesmanship, having dis-
covered the enormous costs in energy and re-
sources expended in winning men back to the
Christian way from which they wandered dur-
ing the adolescent period, or from which they
have fallen through grosser sin in adult life,
are now placing emphasis upon the work of
preventive salvation—those activities neces-
sary to prevent our young people of the con-
gregation and of the Sunday school from going
to the bad.

Now, it should be understood at the outset
that those who insist upon more attention being
given to this phase of church work have no in-
tention of minimizing the value of rescue in the
work of saving the world. It is simply a matter
of emphasis. In speaking upon a similar point

208 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

in my inaugural address at Drew Theological
Seminary, I gave this illustration, which I wish
to repeat here because it meets the case in point:
‘Some years ago, in observing the work of life
guards at Ocean Grove, the chief of whom was
a strong Princeton athlete, I noticed that dur-
ing the whole summer only three or four per-
sons had to be rescued from the surf, and those
had all ventured too far beyond the guard lines
against advice. But I learned that the chief
business of these strong men was to keep people
from going beyond the danger point. In other
words, the emphasis of the summer’s work was
upon preventing people from going into danger
rather than in rescue. Now to the popular
mind, the spectacular rescue of the three or
four persons was of more consequence in esti-
mating the worth of the guards than the safety
of the thousands of men and women and little
children who had been prevented from going
out too far.’? And I added on that occasion the
following comment: ‘‘Now, I believe that the
work of the Christian Church, represented by
its ministry and by the splendid young life in
our brotherhoods, clubs, leagues, and other so-
cieties, is going to be successful in the future
by placing emphasis on keeping the young peo-
ple from going out beyond the danger points
in the social tides all about them. To be sure,
we must have men as leaders, men who, like the

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PREVENTIVE SALVATION 209

Princeton athlete, could do the work of rescue
if needed; but they must place the greatest
emphasis in their program upon preventive
measures. ’’

THe VALUE OF PREVENTION

It is not difficult to see the value of preven-
tive salvation when applied to the work of the
local church or Sunday school. We sometimes
see prizes given to children for bringing in new
members to the school. This is good, but do we
pay enough attention to child study that would
enable us to see when the boy or girl is hkely
to drop out of school and church service, or our
attention to such cases so that they would be
prevented from going astray altogether? -Al-
most any church located in a growing resident
community can increase its membership every
year by taking care of the boys and girls who are
growing up to the period of adolescence when
they are most susceptible to Christian appeal.
Yet we find many such churches deploring the
fact that they cannot have a revival of the old-
time sort of rescue of the many from the ways
of sin. Now, it ought to be possible to rescue
such if they live in a community, but it would
be more pleasing to God if the work of rescue
were not necessary because the work of pre-
vention had been so well carried on. It is diffi-
cult for some men who have been in the fervor

210 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

of revival meetings in times past to see the
significance and importance of so changing the
environment of the newly converted that the
habit of backsliding will become a rare phe-
nomenon. We hold for a period of years the
young life of the community in the Sunday
school. We win by revival effort and everyday
evangelism many adults who have never been
vitally related to the work of the Church, yet
we seem not to advance very rapidly in the total
increase because of the vast number who drop
out of the Sunday schools during the period of
adolescence or backslide after the revival effort
is over. Plainly, it requires only common sense
to see that the emphasis must be placed upon
holding what we have.

METHOD IN PREVENTIVE SALVATION

Our method in preventive salvation must be
directed chiefly toward the environment of our
young people, as well as toward the surround-
ings of those of older years who have been won
from a life of sin by revival effort. When we
come to make a thorough study of the causes
of lapses, we find in a majority of cases the
causes to be social in character, hence the
natural conclusion would be that our remedy
must also be social. Our remedies must not
only include the forms of social organization
and activity in which we can engage both, but

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PREVENTIVE SALVATION 211

they must also in an increasing way include the
ministry of personality—the association of
presence. We have not utilized this method to
its fullest extent in church work. It is being
used with marked success by the friendly
visitor, the probation officer, in dealing with
juvenile delinquents; also in the ‘‘ Big Brother’’
movement so recently started in the city of New
York, and which has been quite successful. We
must learn to make the ministry of personality
so strongly attractive that it will be increasingly
difficult for a boy or girl, a man or woman, to
break with religious associations.

In placing the emphasis upon the regenera-
tion of environment we make it increasingly
easy for a man to keep saved after he has been
reclaimed from a life of sin, or before he has
had a chance to know by actual experience what
vice and sin really are. If by social control
within the power of all good men and women
to establish we could make society what it ought
to be, very few of the pure boys and girls of our
homes would ever know the temptation of the
street, the lure of the dance halls, the saloons,
the gambling dens, and the brothels, the easy ap-
proaches to which we find in the low class of
amusements, the vicious literature with the at-
tractive binding and illustrated frontispiece,
and in the open disregard of the Sabbath by
many who are otherwise respectable citizens.

212 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

GUARDING THE Sources or Lire

In preventive salvation supreme emphasis
must be placed upon the guarding of the
sources of life. We pointed out in the last
chapter how the lack of this guardianship has
led to more than one third of all cases of total
blindness and almost all cases of idiocy and
feeble-mindedness, and, to a large extent, in-
sanity, to say nothing of the many social dis-
eases that are due also to this lack. We dis-
cover in practical social work to-day that the
environmental sources are as important as the
hereditary, if not more so. Some social workers
with long experience in the field claim that en-
vironment is about nine tenths of destiny. We
know from the actual facts in the treatment of
orphans and neglected children that it is at least
eighty-five per cent of the battle for good citi-
zenship. The modification of environment is
one of the most important methods of social
science to-day.

A social heredity may be constantly re-
newed by the activities of teachers and parents,
for, as Professor Patten has well said, ‘‘Health,
vigor, and good fortune are determined by to-
day’s environment.’ It is, therefore, of the
greatest importance in the work of the Church
to-day that we put much emphasis on the trans-

1“The New Basis of Civilization."

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PREVENTIVE SALVATION 213

formation of environment in the process of sav-
ing individuals in society, especially when we
know that many people lose interest in religious
things because of the snares and temptations
of a ‘‘wide-open’’ town, a corrupt and grafting
administration, and the follies of society that
go unchecked because of open license. The old
Negro in the South was correct in his social
philosophy, as well as up to date in his method
of preventive salvation, when in his prayer he
said, ‘‘O Lord, help us to see sin away off, and
shun it when it comes nigh.’’

PrevENtTIvE Satvation Is Not N&EGAtivE

We must also guard ourselves at this point
from the common assumption that preventive
salvation is merely negative in method. It is,
on the contrary, intensely positive and active.
It not only believes in the words of Paul,
‘‘Be not overcome of evil,’’ but it also places
emphasis on the other half of his splendid
advice, ‘‘overcome evil with good.’’ We are
not only to guard the sources of life for our age,
but we are also to guide our young people to the
sources of power. We are to give them the
dynamic of the spiritual forces that are avail-
able to the one who prays in the time of testing,
and also show them the strength of good so-
ciety, and the power of social organization in
the struggle against the forces that make for

214 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

evil in this world. We are not always conscious
of the extent to which our life is socialized to-
day, hence we sometimes fail on this account to
appreciate the significance of the need for a
new social method in dealing in a positive way
with the forces of evil about us. Professor
Ross well states this modern social situation
in his illuminating little book entitled ‘‘Sin and
Society,’’ in these words: ‘‘The sinful heart is
ever the same, but sin changes its quality as
society develops. Modern sin takes its char-
acter from the mutualism of our time. Under
our present manner of living how many of my
vital interests I must intrust to others! Nowa-
days the water main is my well, the trolley car
my carriage, the banker’s safe my old stocking,
the policeman’s billy my fist. My own eyes and
nose and judgment defer to the inspector of
food, or drugs, or gas, or factories, or tene-
ments, or insurance companies. I rely upon
others to look after my drain, invest my sav-
ings, nurse my sick, and teach my children. I
let the meat trust butcher my pig, the oil trust
mold my candles, the sugar trust boil my sor-
ghum, the coal trust eut my wood, the barbed
wire company split my rails.’”?

The only possible way for the individual to
be saved from the sins of these mighty social
forces and powers in modern society is by the

1 “Sin and Society.”

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PREVENTIVE SALVATION 215

utilization of the sources of power through or-
ganization, dominated and controlled by the
religious Christian consciousness. The mar-
tyrdom of mothers by the liquor power in this
country is poor business when we know that by
united organized effort we can close the saloon
in our town and in our State. Preventive sal-
vation does not stop at persuading the man not
to drink, but it goes further and removes the
saloon from the corner where he must pass.

How are we going to save our American
cities from the grafting city councilmen, our
States from boodling assemblymen and sena-
tors? Not by telling these men to be good but,
rather, by insisting at the next town and State
election that good men be put in their places.
In fact, we know the forces of preventive sal-
vation for our country are at work in many
quarters to-day. It is our business everywhere
in all places to stand by these men in this fight
until we have won out for clean cities, State
and national government in every department,
and then it will be easier to bring wrongdoers
in business and commercial life to respect the
interests of society better than some of them
have been doing of late.

PREVENTIVE SALVATION EDUCATIONAL

I believe the solution of the problems of
social sinning in our time as illustrated above

216 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

is to come by changing the emphasis in our
educational process. In our home we have been
engaged for seven years with our little daugh-
ter and six years with our little son in our part
of the educational process; they both know how
to take care of themselves pretty well—I should
say very well, so far as the educational process
has been completed to date. They both have a
religious consciousness so far as they are
capable of receiving religious teaching, or I
should say in so far as they have been given
religious instruction, so that they know how
and when to pray, to give thanks at table, go to
church and Sunday school, and appreciate the
reading of God’s Word. Now, I cannot con-
ceive of these two children growing up and
going to the bad, if we continue properly the
educational process, and our work is not neu-
tralized or destroyed by the work, example, and
teaching of others. Preventive salvation and
normal development have been the two chief
God-given factors in this process. So it seems
to me that it lies within the power of the Chris-
tian Church, represented by the various factors
in the educational process of our civilization, so
to direct the lives of the young within her grasp
(and there is no good reason why she should not
get them all in some communities) that ulti-
mately it would be almost impossible for men
and women to become guilty of such conduct

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PREVENTIVE SALVATION 217

as is being revealed every day in every part of
our country, especially if they have been or
are now members of Christian homes, Sunday
schools, and churches. This cannot become the
case if we in our entire educational process—in
home, in school, in church and college, in the
public meeting and in the public press—put su-
preme emphasis (not to the neglect of the re-
demptive factors) upon the preventive factors
of social salvation.

CHAPTER XIX
SOCIAL SINNING AND SOCIAL SALVATION

In the last chapter we considered the sub-
ject of preventive salvation, and we said that
‘‘those who insist upon more attention being
given to this phase of church work have no in-
tention of minimizing the value of rescue in
the work of saving the world.’’ We simply
showed the value of prevention and pointed out
the method to be pursued, especially that of
‘‘ouarding the sources of life,’’ and the educa-
tional factor in preventive salvation. We come
now to the discussion of a subject that has vital
interest for the church worker of to-day, as well
as for the public-spirited citizens of every com-
munity, namely, social sinning and social sal-
vation.

DEFINITION

By the term ‘‘social sinning’? we mean not
only the conduct of the individual that does
harm to society but also the conduct of the com-
munity that may harm the individual, or do in-
justice to another community, and thus the idea
may be extended indefinitely to all responsible
social groups. By the term ‘‘social salvation’’
we mean not only the conduct of the individual

218

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SOCIAL SINNING 219

consciously or unconsciously directed toward
the saving of society, but also the conduct of the
group consciously directed toward the saving
of the individuals or the individual groups from
any form of peril in which it may find them. In
other words, it is that intelligent process that
takes into account all the causes of human ills
and wrongs and seeks in an organized way to
control them, that salvation both to the indi-
vidual and to the community at large may be
made possible.

The character of social sinning is not so
easily understood because of the fact that we
are accustomed to localize consciousness in the
individual, and likewise the question of guilt
is referred to the individual, though the group
or society at large may be equally involved.
The difficulty in understanding social salvation
is due to the fact that we are accustomed to
place emphasis upon the saved rather than upon
the process of salvation. For example, salva-
tion with reference to a man drowning in the
surf may be expressed by the condition of the
man after he has reached the shore, but the
fact of salvation may be equally well expressed
in the life-saving crew, its equipment and con-
stant drill. So with our definitions of sin and
salvation in church work, we are so apt to fix
our whole attention upon the act or conduct of
the individual without reference to the factors

220 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

that are causal to his condition and are equally
important in fixing matters of merit and de-
merit, responsibility and guilt. We, somehow,
get the notion that fishing a man out of the canal
is salvation, while lighting up the towpath is
something else; that falling in the canal is sin,
while failing to light up the towpath is some-
thing else. We can more easily condemn the
man in the gutter than ourselves for allowing
the saloon to exist on the corner.

Tt is easier for us to establish a rescue mis-
sion than it is to change the social and indus-
trial conditions that produce the ‘‘submerged
tenth.’? In some way we are accustomed to
emphasize sin and salvation more upon the re-
vival efforts that win men and women for the
Church than we do upon condemning the neglect
of the nurture and education that allowed so
many to drift away from the Church, or upon
the graded system of Sunday school instruction
and the social character of enlightened church
activity that may keep the young people in the
kingdom. Now, it is just this phase of sin and
this phase in the process of salvation that I
wish to emphasize in this chapter. The divine
factor in salvation is just the same, and the in-
dividual element is just as important, but the
social factors both in the results of sin and in
the process of salvation are of tremendous
significance and need to be considered.

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SOCIAL SINNING 221

Tue Socrat Perspective or Sin

At the outset it is necessary for us to get a
social perspective of sin before we can become
very efficient in our methods of social salvation.
For example, when I was a student in college I
remember one day when a workman was killed
in repairing a house on the main street of the
city by a falling fragment of rock because there
was no protection overhead for pedestrians on
the sidewalk below. In that same town a man
was hanged in short order, after a brief trial,
for killing a policeman in cold blood as he
walked his beat at midnight. Now, in the latter
ease there was no need for a social perspective
to recognize the quality of the crime committed,
but in the former case it took ten years or more
to get a law enforced to compel contractors to
safeguard their employees while at work on a
building. If the contractor had deliberately
felled this man with a rock he would have been
dealt with as summarily by the law through the
force of public opinion as was the cold-blooded
murderer, but the result to the man and to so-
ciety through neglect to protect the workman
was from the social viewpoint equally bad, and
the conduct that was causal to it equally sinful.

In speaking of the ‘‘New Varieties of Sin’’
and the slowness of the public to recognize
them, Professor Ross says: ‘‘People are senti-

222 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

mental, and bastinado wrongdoing not accord-
ing to its harmfulness but according to the in-
famy that has come to attach to it. _Undis-
cerning, they chastise with scorpions the old
authentic sins but spare the new. They do not
see that boodling is treason, that blackmail is
piracy, that embezzlement is theft, that specula-
tion is gambling, that tax-dodging is larceny,
that railroad discrimination is treachery, that
the factory labor of children is slavery, that
deleterious adulteration is murder.’ And,
further, in showing the need for a new ‘‘grad-
ing of sinners,’’ he states in his inimitable way:
‘‘Mo-day the villain most in need of curbing is
the respectable, exemplary, trusted personage,
who, strategically placed at the focus of a
spiderweb of fiduciary relations, is able from
his office chair to pick a thousand pockets,
poison a thousand sick, pollute a thousand
minds, or imperil a thousand lives. It is the
great-scale, high-voltage sinner that needs the
shackle. To strike harder at the petty pick-
pocket than at the prominent and unabashed
person who in a large impressive way sells out
his constituents, his followers, his depositors,
his stockholders, his policy holders, his sub-
scribers, or his customers, is to ‘strain at a gnat
and swallow a camel.’ ’”

The value of the diffusion of this social per-
"1 “Sin and Society,” pp. 14, 15. 2 Ibid., pp. 29, 30.

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SOCIAL SINNING 223

spective with regard to wrongdoing to society
may be measured by the many crimes that have
been recently unearthed in our American cities
and in some of the State Legislatures. And so
long as we are capable of keeping public opinion
focused upon these opportunities for social sin-
ning we may hope to keep dishonest men out of
city government and State Legislatures, and so
long may we hope to find men of conscience in
every fiduciary relation in which the public is
concerned. We must not indorse vice of any
sort, nor slacken in the least our condemnation
of wrongdoing in the individual, but we must
place more emphasis upon the necessity for a
social perspective that will extend our vision
to the remotest recesses of society where the
social causes of evil have their real source.

Let us take a concrete example of social sin-
ning where the social perspective was lacking,
and no one was willfully guilty of wrongdoing,
though the results were disastrous. In one of
our large cities in the State of New York there
were discovered sixteen cases of diphtheria
along the route of one milkman who lived in
the country. An investigation by the Board of
Health revealed the fact that the man had diph-
theria of the nose. Now, he claimed that a
physician had examined him and found the test
for the disease negative, so he went on peddling
milk while he had the contagion. <A proper so-

224. THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

cial perspective would have made him as cau-
tious as though he had known he was affected,
and the same would have made the examining
physician more cautious in his diagnosis. The
lack of it made these sixteen innocent victims
possible, to say nothing of the expense and care
and anxiety inflicted upon the whole city.

I think it possible in all our educational in-
stitutions, both in the cities and in the country,
so to educate the masses of the people that they
may be able to discern the facts of social sin
and be cautious to avoid it themselves, and
keen to detect it in others, and bold to prosecute
evil-doers wherever discovered. This does not
mean that society is to be constantly disturbed
by a system of amateur espionage, but it means,
rather, the development of a wholesome public
opinion that will insist upon social morality.
In matters of individual wrongdoing there is
seldom any occasion for the ordinary citizen
volunteering information, because public opin-
ion is organized into regular processes of law,
so that the wrongdoer is apprehended in the or-
dinary way, and much of wrongdoing is pre-
vented because public opinion acts as a deter-
rent. Likewise, when we have developed the
social consciousness and imagination so that
people generally will be able to discern the char-
acter of social sinning, we shall have fewer oc-
casions for the disturbed conditions of society

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SOCIAL SINNING 225

because of the punishment of boodlers and
grafters, rebaters and embezzlers, lobbyists and
promoters, for business then will be conducted
on an honest basis, government will be held as a
sacred trust, and all these forms of evil will
vanish from decent society because the light of
public opinion will leave no dark corners for
such connivers to scheme in. To quote again
from Professor Ross: ‘‘Upon the practicers of
new sins there is no longer a curb unless it be
public censure. So the question of the hour is,
can there be fashioned out of popular sentiment.
some sort of buckler for society? Can our
loathing of rascals be wrought up into a kind of
unembodied government, able to restrain the
men that derisively snap their fingers at the
agents of the law? That the public scorn really
bites into wrongdoers of the modern type may
be read in the fate of the insurance gang... .
If only we can bring it to bear, the respect or
scorn of the many is still an immense asset of
society in its struggle with sinners.’’”!

Society May Sin AcGarnst THE INDIVIDUAL

Another illustration of social sinning may
be given where the society itself sins against
the individual, whether consciously or uncon-
sciously. Take, for example, the permission of
child labor in factories, when we know its evil

1 “Sin and Society,” pp. 75-77.

226 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

effects upon the vitality of the workers through
the statistics of death and sickness in such com-
munities; or, again, the licensing of the liquor
traffic, when we know the evil results to homes
and individuals; or the opium trade in China,
which has now to be abolished, thanks to public
opinion, world-wide. Other examples are the
public lottery in many of the European coun-
tries, unjust forms of taxation and tariffs, all of
which have a direct demoralizing effect upon
the individuals of the community, and yet they
are permitted to exist in spite of their evil
effects.

One of the most striking evils of modern
times is the permission of great concerns to
persist in employing men and women and chil-
dren without being compelled to provide safety
devices against accidents, and improved sani-
tary conditions against disease. Take, for ex-
ample, the mine disasters due to incompetent
inspection, or disregard for the law after in-
spection has pointed out the dangers and pre-
scribed the remedies; railroad accidents at
grade crossings, or accidents due to overworked
engineers, or tower men, or to worn-out rolling
stock and inadequate roadbed inspection. In
many such cases in the past society has passed
over the shock by referring them to ‘‘inseru-
table acts of Providence,’? when the public
knows that many of them could have been

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SOCIAL SINNING 227

avoided by its obedience-compelling power if
put in operation at the right time.

Again, social sin may be committed by one
group against another group, one community
against another. If one man takes away by
force another man’s property, we brand him as
a robber or a thief; and yet it is possible, by un-
fair destructive competition, for a whole com-
munity living in peace and plenty to be entirely
deprived of its economic opportunity, and its
whole population be left to drift for itself in the
struggle for existence. But under modern con-
ditions of social psychology we are apt to con-
done such social conduct under the terms of the
law of ‘‘the survival of the fittest.’’ Organized
groups in industry inaugurate warfare and call
to their aid their allies through the plea of
sympathetic interest, and the community at
large must bear the brunt of the expense in loss
of trade, and the recouping of the losses of the
competing groups through the increased cost of
their products, be it in labor or goods.

These are some of the phases of social sin-
ning that need the application of new methods
in applying the principles of the social gospel.
We need a more adequate social psychology
in order to understand the personality of the
social group and in organizing and making
effective the social consciousness in definite
forms of social control.

228 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

SocraL SALVATION

As I stated above, one of the chief reasons
why many people cannot see the importance
of social salvation is because they have been
accustomed to look upon salvation as a finished
product or as a specific act rather than as a
process in which many factors are involved,
none of more importance than the social.

Tae Socran Factors In SALVATION

Tt is well for us to understand the importance
of the social factors in the process of salvation
if we are going to get men and women to put
forth their best efforts in church and Sunday
school work, and maintain the efficiency of re-
ligious education in the family as well as in the
Church. Take, for example, the salvation of a
large family of nine children during the active
life of a noble woman whose husband died when
the youngest was but an infant in arms. Now,
if you ask each of these nine children, now
grown up and actively engaged in the ordinary
tasks of life, what were the chief factors in their
salvation, they would each have a somewhat dif-
ferent answer to give. Among those named
would be, ‘‘Mother’s prayers,’’ ‘‘The ties of
home life,’? ‘‘Family worship,’’ ‘‘Harly train-
ing in Sunday school,’’ ‘‘The influence of my
teacher,’’ ‘‘The sympathy of my pastor at the

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SOCIAL SALVATION 929

time of my conviction,’ ‘‘The standards of
morals in the community where I was brought
up,’’ ‘The work of the Holy Spirit in my heart
as I read God’s Word and meditated upon the
realities of life and death.’? These and many
others would likely be named, and yet no one
would say that these were all the factors in the
process. But I think we will all conclude, after
a little thought, that the important thing for our
day is to keep each worker or group of workers
keyed up to the importance of carrying on well
his part of the process. That mother’s simple
life of prayer and work for her children, with
little talk and much deed, may seem of little
consequence to him who lacks imagination and
the social consciousness in the construction of
his religious program. The loyalty and devo-
tion of a Sunday school teacher through the
most critical period of adolescence may mean
but little to the man whom God has used suc-
cessfully in revival efforts with the crowds of
adults gathered from the byways of sin, but
every intelligent religious worker knows full
well that, could we meet every known social
need of the adolescent youth in society to-day
by a graded system of social organization, the
work of the evangelist with the crowd would be
as impossible as it would be unnecessary; and
yet as society is now constructed, and because
of the social sins now permitted that make it

230 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

necessary for the ‘‘way to destruction’’ to be
‘‘broad’’ in order to accommodate the crowd,
the work of the evangelist is a very important
factor in the process of salvation for the many.
The first important factor in the process that
I would emphasize is that of the sense of social
need in consciousness, or, in other words, there
must be in the mind of the individual and of the
group a motive for the organization of the
social factors in salvation. Let me illustrate:
in this country there has been the ever-widening
influence of the idea that there is no sense or
reason or justice in permitting the exploitation
of the labor and life of children, and as a result
of this consciousness in the minds of the many
we have begun to marshal certain social forces
in what may be termed child-saving institu-
tions, and the conservation of human resources
in child life. This motive for social organiza-
tion is becoming so strong in the nation that we
may hope soon to see it result in a National
Bureau for the Conservation of Child Life. In
other words, whenever the public discovers a
new form of social sinning against the child life
of our age, at that point it develops a new form
of social organization to save the child. An-
other illustration is to be found in the temper-
ance movement. So long as people believed
that intemperance was only a personal vice the
methods of temperance were that of signing the

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SOCIAL SALVATION 231

pledge or the promising of the individual to
give up his cups; but when people began to see
the organizéd character of the liquor traffic,
they began to see the necessity for the organiza-
tion of temperance societies, Prohibition par-
ties, Anti-Saloon Leagues, and State-wide move-
ments to control the evil of the saloon. And
wherever the evil takes on a new form of attack
there the temperance movement must make a
counter organized attack on the traffic.

Gambling furnishes another illustration of
this factor of the need being felt in the con-
sciousness of the group. When it became
known to the different States and to the nation
at large that gambling was an evil to society
as a whole, and not merely an individual vice,
the different State Legislatures proceeded to
legislate against the evil, and ultimately the na-
tion acted as a whole, as in the matter of
lottery.

So for slavery, and the emancipation move-
ment that followed; so with the current move-
ment in the State and national legislative bodies
against the so-called ‘‘white-slave traffic.’? The
consciousness of insurance frauds led to State
control of all insurance companies. The knowl-
edge of the evils of rebating and other evils,
such as stock-watering, accidents, ete., in public
service corporations and other public utilities,
led to the bringing of them under the authority

232 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

of an obedience-compelling power, so that these
evils might, so far as possible, be eliminated.

As in the case of individual salvation, in the
popular sense, a sense of need precedes an ef-
fective salvation, so for society the fundamen-
tal need in social salvation is the development
of the social consciousness and imagination to
see the need for organized movements for the
salvation of the community, the State, the na-
tion, and humanity as a whole.

Professor Ross has well pointed out the need
for an awakened consciousness of new forms of
sin in the progress of human society when he
makes a distinction between vice and sin, and
shows how the one tends to destroy the person
indulging, and the other to make fat the sinner
while others are destroyed as the victims. Our
task is to distinguish in consciousness the new
forms of sin and direct our forces against them
as well as against the vices of men. To quote:
‘‘By vice we mean practices that harm oneself;
by sin we mean conduct that harms another.
They spring from different roots and call for
different treatment. Sin grows largely out of
the relations into which men enter, and hence
social development, by constantly opening new
doors to wrongdoing, calls into being new
species of sin. Crude law recognizes three
kinds of stealing, developed law ten kinds, the
law of to-day seventeen kinds. By the time it

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SOCIAL SALVATION 233

is abreast of our present needs it will discrimi-
nate, perhaps, thirty kinds. The same is true
of other types of wrongdoing.’’! If it be true
that sin changes its form as society develops
and men are thrown into new relation to each
other, then our first task in social salvation is
to keep the social consciousness of men awake
to the changing social needs. This should cer-
tainly be a part of the educational program of
the Church.

A second factor in social salvation is social
movement or organized effort in order to save
the sinned against, as well as the sinner. It is
a fact worthy of note that most of the organized
movements in modern times in the interests of
society have been directed toward the victims
rather than toward the sinner himself in high
places. Take, for example, the movement for
pure-food inspection and labeling. It has been
in the interests of the potential victims of
‘Cembalmed’’ beef and poisonous drugs in adul-
terations rather than for the reform of the
dealers that the pure-food legislation has been
brought about; so for all the organized efforts
for public welfare, the note of emphasis has
been toward the saving of society, and not
merely the reform of the sinner against society.
‘“‘Wor the man who is the prey of the evil in-
clinations of others surely has a better claim

1See “Sin and Society,”’ pp. 90, 91.

234 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

on us than the man who is the prey of his own
evil inclinations.’’! But it must be conceded
here that the evils that result to others from
the conduct of certain forms of business enter-
prise are not always the result of evil intent;
they are in most cases the by-products of activi-
ties that are otherwise willed. For example,
accidents in industry, and especially in those
forms where there is always a large margin of
danger. Now, the public interest is usually
directed toward the safety of the potential
victims, and it must not be said that all men
engaged in industries where accidents occur
are sinners against society. But it must be
recognized as true in many cases that, for the
sake of paying dividends, or to avoid in-
ereased financial obligations, conditions are al-
lowed to go beyond the danger point, and acci-
dents result that might have been avoided. It
is just here that social movement in modern
times involves the codperation of the many, in
an indirect way, to the increased cost to the
public of having things done in the right way,
for the safety and welfare of the people in gen-
eral. So in our religious activity for the salva-
tion of the community; we are beginning in
modern times to put more emphasis upon social
movements for the saving of those who are
sinned against than in former times. We are
"1 Professor Ross, Ibid., p. 94.

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SOCIAL SALVATION 235

organizing activities counter to those that are
causal to the lapses of many from the Church.

This brings us to a third factor in social sal-
vation, namely, preventive measures in the con-
servation of results. Men in public life have
discovered in recent years that it does not avail
merely to pass reform legislation, but that there
must be adequate means provided to carry out
reform measures by preventing a recurrence of
the old conditions that caused the evils in the
first place. So in our religious work of to-day,
we are coming to see more and more the im-
portance of conserving the resources we already
have, and in preventing the people from being
enticed into a life of sin after the Church has
put its stamp upon them.

Wuat Can THE CHURCH Do?

What active measures can the Church under-
take to promote social salvation? In the case
of our city governments, it seems a pity and a
shame to our democracy that cases of boodling,
such as have been brought to light in recent —
years, should ever have been possible; that
graft in our legislative halls of some of the
great States in the Union should have become
so flagrant seems inconceivable when we con-
sider the activity of the Christian denomina-
tions in these centers of population. Is it not
quite true that we should undertake a more

236 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

aggressive policy of moral education in our
homes, local church communities, and in the re-
ligious press that will bring the light to bear
upon these secret places of wrongdoing, and see
to it that men who are unimpeachable be sent
to our legislative halls and into the board rooms
of our city governments? Can we not also
create a stronger sentiment in favor of a more
aggressive policy of moral education in our
public schools, not only in the content of the
curricula of the schools, but also in the conduct
of the boards of education in many places in the
choosing of teachers who take their profession
seriously, and see to it that they are paid suffi-
cient salary to make teaching a serious lifework
instead of a makeshift until they can get some-
thing better?

Again, the Church can do much toward the
saving of society by encouraging men to under-
take civic tasks from the viewpoint of express-
ing true Christian motive. Shall we not insist
on these various forms of Christian activity
rather than try to fashion all men into a few
molds of Christian experience and work within
the narrower limits of the church services, con-
ducted largely within the building?

Within recent years wealthy philanthropists
have proposed to establish foundations with the
endowment of millions, for the carrying on of
various forms of enterprise for the betterment

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SOCIAL SALVATION 237

of human society. Who are to be the men and
women, apart from the men and women of high
character already named as the trustees, to
earry on the practical work that these great
foundations represent? I feel quite sure that
they will be men and women of high ideals and
pure motives for the welfare of society, and it
would be quite a cause for regret if our churches
should not be largely represented, not by rea-
son of the denominational name they bear, but,
rather, by virtue of the character they have won
through that intellectual and heart grasp they
have made of the ideals and lifework of Him,
who, ‘‘though he was rich, yet for our sakes
became poor, that we through his poverty might
become rich,’’? and who had such a high con-
ception of what his disciples should contribute
to the salvation of human society that he said
to them and of them, ‘‘Ye are the light of the
world,’’ ‘‘Ye are the salt of the earth.’’ Let us
see to it that we send out men and women into
every legitimate activity of society who shall
bear the light of truth, and contain within them-
selves that preservative quality that shall make
and keep society pure.

CHAPTER XxX
THE CHURCH AND THE WORKINGMAN!

In discussing a subject like this upon which
so much has been said and written, it is well
for us not to enter into a dissertation concern-
ing the differences of viewpoint of the Church
and labor, but rather to proceed to find out in
how many points the two are in practical agree-
ment, and where they do not agree, to earnestly
search for the reasons for disagreement and
frankly state these for the benefit of society,
rather than keep silent for the sake of some-
body’s feelings; for my experience with work-
ingmen has shown me that, as a class, they are
fair-minded in discussion and welcome nothing
so eagerly as they do frankness in stating the
facts one has to present. The Church should
be as eager to hear the laboring man’s state-
ment of his case.

The subject implies two socially organized
groups of men, not necessarily exclusive of
each other, each having a different class con-
sciousness and a separate organized existence

1 For a fuller discussion of the subject, “The Church and Labor,”
I refer the reader to my article published in Chapter IV of “The
Socialized Church,”’ by Tippy.

238

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CHURCH AND WORKINGMAN 239

in society. The subject implies also that there
is being developed as never before an under-
standing between the Church and workingmen
of mutual interests which is ushering in a better
social order in which there are to be estab-
lished righteousness, peace, and pleasurable
association among all the legitimate groupings
of human population. In fact, when we come
to study the two great movements represented
by the Church and by labor, they have many
aspects in common. Though the Church is
made up of many denominations, some highly
and others loosely organized, some peacefully
disposed toward others, while some are selfish
and opposed to all others, yet we think of the
Church as one great movement founded by
Christ Jesus, and we look for the consummation
of the ultimate union of all true believers
in true fellowship represented by the conception
of the kingdom of God on earth.

Likewise the labor movement is represented
by many class-conscious groups and organized
sections, some with a strong central union
control, others without any visible union con-
trol, others without any visible form of union
save the union of a common struggle for,
and interest in, life. Yet we can and do speak
of all these groups as representing one great
movement of the workers of the world based
upon the struggle against poverty, and the

240 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

passion for social justice, and having for its
ultimate goal a social state where every man
shall have a chance to work, and every man
shall receive his just share of the profits of
productive toil as he has need.

In our definition of the Church I am sure all
have a Weltanschauung that is broader than
the bounds of our own denomination, world-
wide as it may be, but our definition includes all
the organized forces of the Christian Name that
are engaged in the serious task of extending on
earth that noblest expression of organized so-
ciety we call the kingdom of God. So in our
definition of the labor movement, I am sure we
should have a Weltanschauung that is broader
than the stretches of any one federative move-
ment of organized labor, or any socialist-po-
litical propaganda, and includes all who are
engaged in the serious struggles against the
wrongs of greed, and graft, and political cor-
ruption, centered in the exploitation of human
labor for personal and selfish gain, and in the
endeavor to establish that kind of a democracy
through social control that shall make the
Golden Rule the basis of social justice.

Now, we must admit that there are many
facts to be observed in the present as well as in
the history of the Church to mar our definition
and even to lead us to question its validity.
Likewise there are many manifestations in the

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CHURCH AND WORKINGMAN 241

industrial order that would lead us to question
the truthfulness of our definition of the labor
movement. Notwithstanding the facts of re-
ligious wars, factional strife, religious bigotry,
and intolerance, and notwithstanding strikes,
boycotts, lockouts, struggles between organized
and unorganized labor, the ‘‘open’’ and the
‘“closed’’ shop, Socialist party and Labor party,
yet we are using a new vocabulary with respect
to both of these organized bodies. ‘‘The Fed-
eration of the Churches,’’ ‘‘The Federation of
Labor,’’ ‘‘Church Unity,’’ ‘‘The Brotherhood
of Man,’’ ‘‘The Socialized Church,’’ ‘‘The
Temple of Labor,’’ etc.—all these indicate the
trend of modern life toward the realization of
the facts contained in the definition both for the
Church and the labor movement.

Tur CHurcH’s Present ATTITUDE TOWARD THE
Lasor MovEMENT

While the Church has always been interested
in the laboring man, it has not until recent years
given serious study to the subject of the work-
ingman as a movement. It can be said now,
however, that the Church’s serious study of the
labor movement has led the leading denomina-
tions in this country to take some definite action
toward the solution of the labor problem. For
illustration: the Protestant Episcopal Church
has for many years maintained an organization

242 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

known as the Church Association for Improv-
ing the Condition of Labor, and at its national
Conference some years ago said, among other
things: ‘‘We are convinced that the organiza-
tion of labor is essential to the well-being of
the working people. Its purpose is to maintain
such a standard of wages, hours, and conditions
as shall afford every man an opportunity to
gain in mind and heart. Without organiza-
tion this standard cannot be maintained in
the midst of our present commercial con-
ditions.’”!

The Presbyterian Church has established a
Department of Church and Labor in its Home
Mission Board, and under the efficient leader-
ship of Mr. Charles Stelzle has recently estab-
lished in New York a ‘‘Temple of Labor,’’
which shall be devoted to the ministry of the
gospel of Christ to the working men of New
York.

The Congregational Church has placed itself
on record thus: ‘‘We urge our Church to take
a deeper interest in the labor question, and to
get a more intelligent understanding of the
aims of organized labor.’’?

The Methodist Episcopal Church, while
known from the beginning as ‘‘The Poor
Man’s Church,’’ interested in the workers of

1See Charles Stelzle, in “Encyclopedia of Social Reform,” by
Bliss, p. 222. 2See Ibid., p. 223.

AS:

+

CHURCH AND WORKINGMAN 943

the world, yet at the last General Conference
(1908) placed upon record in the Episcopal Ad-
dress its interest in the just aspirations of the
labor movement in terms like these: ‘‘ We recog-
nize that the fundamental purposes of the labor
movement are essentially ethical, and there-
fore should command the support of Christian
men. We recognize, further, that the organiza-
tion of labor is not only the right of the laborers,
and conducive to their welfare, but is inciden-
tally of great benefit to society at large in the
securing of better conditions of work and life,
in its educational influence upon the great
multitudes concerned, and particularly in
the Americanization of our immigrant popu-
lation.’’

The Young Men’s Christian Association has
for many years given special attention to labor-
ing men in railroad and shop work, conducting
meetings and classes for the betterment of the
physical, intellectual, social, and spiritual life
of the men.

Some of the denominations have inaugurated
a custom of appointing fraternal delegates to
the Central Labor Union of each district to con-
fer with laboring men upon subjects of vital
interest to the community, such as the saloon,
gambling, the social evil, Sunday work, child
labor, sanitary conditions in tenements and fac-
tories, and everything else that influences the

244. THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

moral life of the community.!_ Another expres-
sion of the Church’s attitude toward the labor
movement is to be found in the statement pre-
sented to the Federal Council of the Churches
of Christ in America by the Committee on the
Church and Modern Industry, of which Rev.
Frank Mason North, D.D., was chairman and
wrote the report.”

Notwithstanding all this splendid record of
the expression of the Church’s attitude toward
the labor movement, we are all conscious of a
widespread opinion that the Church as a whole
is not doing what it might reasonably be ex-
pected to do for the betterment of the conditions
of living among the workingmen of the world.
We should not fear or decry the power of
organization and of the social consciousness
among workingmen, but we should, rather,
make it our business to give direction to the
labor movement by the principles of the gospel
in channels of usefulness to society, and not
allow it to go unrestrained in any quarter until
it becomes destructive of moral order.

How Can tHe Cuurcu Heir roe Lasor
Movement?

Believing that the labor movement is at heart
a righteous movement for the ultimate better-
1 See pene Stelzle, in “Encyclopedia of Social Reform,” by

Bliss, p.
2 See te asides City,” for December, 1908.

AS
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CHURCH AND WORKINGMAN 245

ment of society at large, the Church can aid in
this movement as a whole and diffuse its knowl-
edge throughout the masses of the people
touched by its leaders through the Sunday
school, the public services, the pulpit, schools,
and religious press. If we expect the sympathy
of the labor movement, we owe it to the working-
men to treat their cause in an intelligent way;
and if we expect to help them, we must diagnose
their case before prescribing for their needs.
This will enable the Church to be impartial in
its judgments of the contentions between or-
ganized employers and their employees. The
Church can also give to the labor movement
active codperation in the endeavor to correct
abuses and social wrongs, such as child labor,
unfair competition with woman labor, Sunday
work that is unnecessary, unsanitary conditions
of places of work, and residence in tenements,
unfair distribution of profits in industry, the
evils of gambling and graft.

The Church should greatly assist the labor
movement also by promoting the moralization
of the employers. While it is true that many
of the captains of industry are noble Christian
men, and have a brotherly sympathy for their
employees, yet it is true that some of them have
been shown up in recent investigations by va-
rious commissions and legislative committees
to be men of barbaric notions of ethics, and

246 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

many of them have been found guilty of con-
duct contrary to the laws of the State as well
as the Decalogue and the Golden Rule. We
can never hope to see the labor unions working
overtime on the Golden Rule until we get em-
ployers converted to the principles of industrial
altruism.

The Church can also assist the labor move-
ment in the socialization of workingmen. In
the study of industrial psychology we find that
the workingmen while at their toil in many lines
of industry have less chance to-day than for-
merly under machine labor to develop person-
ality and to broaden their social horizon. The
Church has the socializing agencies to do this
for them better even than the labor unions,
for they (the unions) are class-conscious and in
most cases, so far as their class is concerned,
selfish, while the Church, on the other hand, is
conscious of a world-kingdom of righteousness,
peace, and joy, and, in most cases at least, is
hopefully altruistic.

There will be no return to the former meth-
ods of industry, where employer and worker
will be on a common plane and in social inter-
course. The machine, the corporations, and
the trust are here, and even larger combina-
tions of capital and more extensive divisions of
labor are to be inaugurated. What we need to
do as a Church is to socialize the consciousness

Ae
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CHURCH AND WORKINGMAN 247

of both groups into a synthesis of the universal
social order. The Church can do this if it
will, because every Christian member of a labor
union is a point of contact between the Church
and the changing social order, and forms a re-
ligious imitation center for the spread of the
Christian social ideal until a Christian democ-
racy is established.

The Church can help the labor movement by
revising its own notions of sin and salvation.
We have, somehow, given the impression that
we are more interested in the workingman’s
personal vices—sins which harm himself—than
we are in the sins of those that harm the work-
ingman. Conduct that harms others should be
looked upon with greater hatred than conduct
that harms oneself. The man who peddles
diseased milk that destroys the workingman’s
babies is about as big a sinner as the man who
has the cigarette habit, or indulges in social
vice, or bets at the races; both forms of conduct
should be equally denounced by the Church.
We must get it clear in our Christian conscious-
ness that it is as pleasing to God to help a
group of men by regenerating their environ-
ment as it is to redeem them from the slums of
vice and crime. Unless the Church makes as
strong an effort to better the conditions of the
workingmen as it does to get them into the
Church, she must not blame the workingman

248 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

for having some suspicions as to the motives
which prompt her activities.

The Church can help the labor movement by
furnishing and equipping intelligent leadership
in social reform—men who are strong enough
and bold enough to take sides in an industrial
dispute when the cause is just. This idea of
leadership may be illustrated by the life of
Pastor Stoker, of Berlin, who, in a speech in the
German Reichstag on child and female labor,
said: ‘*We have stated the question the wrong
way. We have asked, ‘How much child and
female labor does industry need in order to
flourish, to pay dividends, and to sell goods
abroad?’ whereas we ought to have asked, ‘How
ought industry to be organized in order to pro-
tect and foster the family, the human indi-
vidual, and the Christian life?’ ’”!

Finally, the Church can help the labor move-
ment by showing the spirit of brotherly sym-
pathy, and a heart interest in the workingman,
like that of the Carpenter of Galilee, who said:
‘‘Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke
upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and
lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your
souls.’? The Church must teach men, as he did,
how to find rest in labor and not rest from labor.

1Quoted by Rauschenbusch, in “Christianity and the Social
Crisis.”

AS
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CHURCH AND WORKINGMAN 249

Waar Can THe Lasor Movement Do to HELP
THE CHURCH?

The time will come when by mutual under-
standing of their beneficent aims for society
the splendid organized energies of the labor
movement will be coupled with the organized
energies of the Church in its fight against all
the sins and vices of society that are the com-
mon enemies of both in their struggle for social
justice, righteousness, and permanent indus-
trial peace. I expect to see the day when the
labor movement will employ the successful
methods used against organized greed (the
strike, the boycott, and picketing), against or-
ganized vice, the ‘‘white-slave traffic,’’ the sa-
loon, gambling, degrading amusements, and
debasing literature; against the tramp habit,
pauperism, unsanitary tenements, impure food,
tuberculosis, and other social diseases. Also I
hope soon to see the time when the Church and
labor shall stand together in a statesmanlike
way until the appalling budget of accidents in
industry in this country shall be materially re-
duced, and those still remaining, adequately
compensated for by all the responsible indus-
trial factors causal thereto.

Space will not permit of the statement of
other lines of social activity in which the labor
movement can aid the Church, nor to give a

250 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

résumé of the splendid work already achieved
for social uplift of the masses by the organiza-
tions of labor. Let us hope that all organiza-
tions for the uplift of men may so work
together that the social regime to be reached
may not injure or destroy those other essential
factors of social organization that in largest
measure make work for most of us possible.

CHAPTER XXI
THE SOCIAL SETTLEMENT

Ir is fitting that we follow up our discussions
of ‘‘Preventive Salvation”? and ‘‘Social Salva-
tion’? by a chapter on the social settlement,
which embodies in its methods of work so much
that is preventive of evil to the community, and
endeavors through social direction to lift the
entire community to a better social status.

It will not be necessary for me to give a his-
tory of the social settlement movement from
the days of Arnold Toynbee (1875-1883) to the
present, when the number of settlements has
reached about three hundred in the world, more
than two hundred of which are located within
the United States of America; for a reference
to ‘‘Bliss’s Encyclopedia of Social Reform,’’ or
to Miss MacDowell’s interesting article on
“<The Value of the Social Settlement,’’ in ‘‘The
Socialized Church’’ (Tippy), will give the
reader an excellent account of the history of
this great movement.t We wish simply to con-
sider the essential features embodied in the
social-settlement idea which may be of value in
the work of educating and saving the people of

1 See also Jane Addams, “Twenty Years at Hull House.”

251

252 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

any community that require such methods of
social engineering.

CARRYING THE CHURCH TO THE PEOPLE

Tn the first place, so far as the Church is con-
cerned, it represents not the idea so often em-
phasized in Christian activity, the bringing of
the people to the Church, but rather the idea
that needs to be emphasized more and more
these days—the taking of the Church to the
people. Where this is done in the spirit of true
discipleship, the churching of the people follows
as a natural result. The social settlement is de-
fined by Miss Woolfolk as ‘‘homes in the poorer
quarters of the city where educated men and
women may live in personal contact with the
working people.’’! In other words, we may de-
fine a social settlement as the institutionalizing
of good neighborship. It involves a definite,
purposive living in a neighborhood to lead and
guide in all matters of good citizenship not by a
direct appeal to individuals to lead a better life,
but by championing the rights of men through
the lawful agencies already existing for the
building up of a decent community environment
where it will be possible for a godly disposed
folk to keep saved after they have been con-
verted to the higher life.

But it is not always necessary for the

1See Bliss’s “Encyclopedia of Social Reform,” p. 110.

AS

THE SOCIAL SETTLEMENT 255

church in a given locality to institutionalize its
method. Itis possible for many families to em-
body in their life program the social-settlement
idea by living among the people in a normal
way. This was the fundamental idea in the
program of John Wesley, and accounts for the
phenomenal growth of Methodism in the com-
munities of laboring people in Great Britain
and in the pioneer communities of our own
country. It is urgently necessary, however, for
many of our local churches to socialize their
methods of work so as to utilize a larger num-
ber of the total membership of these great in-
stitutions in other saving activities than those
that are carried on by the regular services
within the church edifice, those activities that
have for their purpose the regenerating of the
environment of the people through interest in
their behalf at the city hall, or in the directors’
meeting of the corporation that holds their hu-
man welfare inits grasp, or at the juvenile court,
or before the truant officer, where it is possible
for social justice to fail through the lack of an
intelligent advocate who has a sympathy born
of contact with the facts as they are.

In speaking of the value of the social-settle-
ment idea in church work before the First
National Conference of Social Workers of
Methodism, held in Saint Louis in November,
1908, Miss Isabelle Horton, of Chicago, stated

254 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

the following as one phase of the Church’s re-
lation to this movement: ‘‘Considered in its
relation to the Church, the work of the social
settlement must be largely preparatory. It is
hard for one brought up under the droppings
of the sanctuary, drawing in with every breath
the influences of early religious training, to
understand how far away from this world in
which he lives are the multitudes that we speak
of as the ‘unchurched masses’—how life be-
comes narrowed by long hours of heavy toil,
how embittered by pinching want, how brutal-
ized by intemperance, how chained by Old
World superstitions and habits. The Christian
worker who goes among them must have faith
to do pioneer work and trust God for results
that may be most apparent in the next genera-
tion. She (speaking of the deaconess) must
root up weeds of false teaching, dig out rocks of
ignorance and prejudice, break up the fallow
ground, and be glad if it is given to her to drop
a seed of divine truth here and there, never look-
ing for the harvest which may be gathered in
times which she will not live to see, and by in-
stitutions of which she has never heard.’”! This
form of church activity involves the idea that
the saving of a human soul includes not only
the decision of a moment at the church altar, or
in the home, but also the creation of a new en-
" 1 “The Socialized Church,”’ pp. 168, 169.

AS

ae

THE SOCIAL SETTLEMENT 255

vironment for the individual, that his soul may
be kept as well as saved.!

Tuer Intrecrity or Human NATURE

In the second place, the social settlement
represents the idea that there is fundamentally
an integrity about human nature which makes
it possible for people in whatever social state
they may be found to respond to the appeal for
the better life. If this were not the case, we
could not conceive of how the Master could have
intrusted the redeeming of the world to a few
humble fishermen and tentmakers, who them-
selves had responded to his call to discipleship.
In settlement work it is often discovered that
the reason people have not responded to this in-
ward desire for better things is not that such
desire is always lacking, but, rather, that the
environing conditions were such that they could
not translate such desires into actual conduct.
It is for this very purpose that the religious
social settlement was established, to make it
possible for men and women to live a normal
life for which they in most cases have an
earnest longing.

Tae Ministry or PerRsonAaLity

In the third place, the social settlement rep-
resents the ministry of personality. This great
1 “The Socialized Church,”’ compare Miss Horton’s statement, p. 158.

256 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

principle of human betterment is worked out
in practical life in the settlement through the
laws of imitation, codperation, and good neigh-
borship. There is nothing in this world so com-
pelling as the power of benevolent personality.
The officer of the law is sometimes mobbed in
trying to carry out some ordinance of the Board
of Health, where the social-settlement worker
gets a willing response through the power of
personality. The principle that infinences your
neighbor to rake the leaves off his lot, and mow
his lawn, and plant shrubbery when he sees you
doing these things is the same principle which
makes the tenement dweller remove the tin cans
from the vacant lot, the garbage pail or wash-
tub from the fire escape, and install a bath in
his apartments, when he has come in contact
with the social-settlement worker who under-
stands how to enforce the law by the principle
of imitation. ‘‘For what the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh, God send-
ing his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh,
and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.’

The social settlement succeeds in its minis-
try of personality through the principle of co-
operation. The social worker helps the man
with new vision to attain what he tries to imi-
tate. This is done not merely in an individual
way, but also through the coéperation of institu-
Gri Note ito, 8. 3.

AS
we

THE SOCIAL SETTLEMENT 257

tions in the community. To quote the words of
Miss Mary E. MacDowell, director of the Uni-
versity of Chicago Settlement: ‘‘The settle-
ment fills the place of an experiment station in
the city for the school and public philanthropic
societies, and cooperates with every agency that
offers to serve the needs of its neighbors. The
settlement becomes rooted in its community by
the personal sympathetic, neighborly acts that
inevitably lead its residents to the city hall,
juvenile court, hospitals, and all the agencies
that help to ameliorate the hardness of the lives
of those who through poverty, vice, ignorance,
and inexperience find themselves in trouble. In
response to the demand of the community, so-
cial, educational, philanthropic, and sometimes
religious, activities organize themselves into
clubs and classes.’”?

Again, the ministry of personality is ex-
pressed in good neighborship in the work of
the social settlement. There is great danger in
our modern industrial life and in the institu-
tionalizing of all our Church activities that
we lose sight of this great principle of Chris-
tianity. In former days, when the problems of
population were not so pressing as now, in times
of sickness and death, we depended upon some
good neighbor; to-day we leave such matters
to the physician, the trained nurse, and the

1 “The Socialized Church,” p. 143.

258 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

undertaker. When disputes arose we consulted
our neighbor as to what was best to do; but to-
day we leave the matter to our lawyer. Now,
all this is the result of the changing social
order; but, nevertheless, in the midst of it all
we still need that ministry of personality which
is represented by the conduct of the good neigh-
bor. The social settlement meets this demand
through the work of the friendly visitor and the
alertness of the social workers who touch the
life of the community at every point of need.

Wuart Can tHe CHourcH Do?

It may be asked by the thoughtful reader at
this point, ‘‘What can the Church do in making
use of the social-settlement idea?’’ It may be
said that the Church has not only been the
founder of the social settlement, but it has suc-
cessfully maintained the most effective settle-
ments of the three hundred or more now estab-
lished in the world; not only directly, in found-
ing them, but also indirectly, through the
educational institutions and the noble men and
women who have been trained in the work of
the kingdom by the Church, and have gotten
their motive and vision from the example and
teaching of Jesus, who ‘‘became flesh, and
dwelt among us.’’

In the first place, the Church can successfully
utilize the social-settlement idea by enlarging

AS
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THE SOCIAL SETTLEMENT 259

the scope of the deaconess work so as to clude
in every population center a ‘‘Church Settle-
ment House,’’ where trained women could give
their entire time to community work. This
would require additional courses and field work
in the curriculum of the deaconess training
schools. The Church could also modify its edu-
cational policy in the theological schools so as
to train men to become head workers in social
settlements, not only those under the direct con-
trol of the Church but also other settlements
established by universities and private philan-
thropy. The candidates for the ministry in
some of our theological seminaries are already
receiving such training where there has been
established a department of ‘‘Christian Soci-
ology,’’ ‘‘Social Ethies,’’ or ‘‘ Applied Chris-
tianity,’’ as the case may be.

Again, the Church can realize these ends by
establishing special Bible training classes in
the Sunday school made up of picked men and
women who have the gifts and liking for such
work. Ample materials may be found in the
Gospels and the Epistles for such study, be-
sides helps from books already published on the
social settlement and the various phases of its
work. Such a class properly manged by a com-
petent man or woman could do some excellent
field work in our cities where social settlements
are already established, having the advantage

260 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

of years of experimental work, whereby they
may see the reasons for the successes and fail-
ures of the social settlement as now conducted.

The Church could also adopt some ‘‘connec-
tional’’ system, similar to the plan of conduct-
ing foreign mission work and the deaconess
work, whereby these trained workers could be
given a definite salary, and an appeal could be
made for volunteers that should be as strong in
Christian motive as any appeal now made for
the foreign field or the deaconess work, because
of the strategic significance of the modern city
and the deplorable condition of church work in
many of the populous rural districts.

The time has come when we need trained so-
cial engineers for these two mighty fields of
Christian work; and it seems to me that if men
could be assured by the Church of a decent
living and a chance to stay on the job until their
work is accomplished in any given community,
there would be a ready response by some of the
strongest young men in our universities and
colleges to the appeal of Jesus for laborers in
these fields of potential harvests; a chance to
mold the life of a whole downtown district with
a teeming population of the upward-struggling
and downward-slipping of all the nations; or a
chance to organize the social, civic, and religious
life of a whole county in some of our rural dis-
tricts.

aS

THE SOCIAL SETTLEMENT 261

But we are not to infer that this social-set-
tlement idea is to be a permanent expression of
church work in these fields. Our methods must
change with the changing social need. The
kingdom of God on earth does not consist
merely in doing these things. This is only a
part of the process by which the kingdom of
God is to be established in the city and in the
country districts. In the kingdom of God there
are to be no lost sheep, no miserable victims of
the ‘‘system’’ or of sin, because the principles
of the gospel which Jesus brought to man will
ultimately be acted upon by all. There may be
sickness or distress, but the people will not be
left as ‘‘sheep without a shepherd,’’ for there
will be some one to care for them through the
ministry of personality, some institutions to _
look after the welfare of the helpless. But until
the cities and the villages have heeded the
preaching and example of the disciples of Jesus
they will still need the charity of the disciples.
So our task of training workers and manning
institutions and molding public opinion must
go on for some time to come until we get all
people to live right, so that we may have the
least possible residuum of the defective social
output in pauperism, defectiveness, and crime
—the chief evils which make the social settle-
ment necessary, but whose causes lie deeper in
the derangement of the changing social order.

CHAPTER XXII
THE SOCIAL CAUSES OF THE BOY PROBLEM

Ir will be readily admitted by all who are
interested in the betterment and welfare of
human society that we have what is termed
‘‘the boy problem.’’ It may be stated in two
ways; first, from the viewpoint of the ‘‘bad
boy’’ and how to reclaim him; second, from the
viewpoint of the normal ‘‘good boy’’ and how
he has been kept from the bad. In other words,
we find a certain percentage of the boys in any
community who may be characterized under the
first, and a certain percentage who are normally
growing up in the community to worthy man-
hood who are designated by the second. So,
then, the boy problem really involves both pre-
vention and reclamation, but before we can suc-
cessfully meet the boy problem in either of its
important phases we ought to know something
of the social causes that make the boy problem
so important. If we discover the causes of the
increasing numbers of delinquent boys in every
civilized country to be preventable social causes,
then the fact is clear that preventive salvation
as the solution of the boy problem.

We do not need to go very far from home to

262

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SOCIAL NEGLECT OF BOYS 263

see evidences of the acuteness of the boy prob-
lem which the Church has to face in the present.
In New York city last year! there were twelve
thousand boys brought before the juvenile
court, and, according to the statement of the
clerk of the court, more than one half of that
vast number were there because they had no
place to play. Standing at the railroad station
of one of our suburban towns one Sunday
evening during the summer, the writer counted
nearly fifty boys between fourteen and twenty
years of age waiting for the train to distribute
them at their homes in adjacent towns after a
Sabbath of carousing at a Sunday baseball field,
and in the saloon—open in defiance of the law
which represents the organized expression of
the public opinion in that town. In any city or
town in the country at large it is possible dur-
ing the hours of Sunday school service to count
as many boys from fourteen to twenty-one
years of age on the streets as may be found of
the same age within the Sunday schools. This
condition of adolescent boyhood is not confined
to our country.

In Europe it has been shown by statistics re-
cently compiled that crimes among boys of the
adolescent period are on the increase. It is
claimed by Sunday school experts that we lose
permanently from the Sunday school and
"1 1909-10.

264. THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

church life from forty-two to seventy-five per
cent of the boys that have been enrolled.’

When we come to study the character of the
inmates of our penal institutions for males we
find the vast majority of them are young men
under twenty-eight years of age.

These and many other facts that are well
known to the reader will indicate that we have
a very difficult phase of the boy problem to
deal with from the viewpoint of reclamation.
And when we come to study the causes we find
in every case that they lie outside the narrow
range of the individual person involved, and
are either deep seated in the laws of heredity,
or lie within the broader ranges of responsible
social groups which are guilty of neglect in the
treatment of boys. Here is where we discover
the social causes of the boy problem, which may
be classified under three general heads, as (1)
Family Neglect, (2) Community Neglect, (3)
Church Neglect. The chief causes, therefore,
of the boy problem lie in the failure of one or
more of these responsible social groups to pro-
vide for the boy the things that would make
possible the normal satisfaction and exercise of
all the unfolding instincts and growing faculties
of the adolescent personality. I believe in the
statement of Phillips Brooks, already referred

1See report of International Sunday School Association Conven-
tion, held in Washington, D. C., in 1910.

4

aS
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SOCIAL NEGLECT OF BOYS 265

to, that a man is a criminal not so much by
virtue of what he has acquired as by virtue of
what he has missed; and our treatment of him
is to be governed by that fact: not that he has
become a criminal, but that he has not become
fullyaman. This principle in modern penology
gives us the clue to the discovery of the social
causes of the delinquency in boys, for in almost
every case in dealing with a delinquent boy we
discover that he has been guilty of no greater
crime than the attempt to satisfy a perfectly
normal desire in an unlawful way, and had this
desire been provided for by wise measures for
satisfaction, or by sane measures of restraint,
there would have been no delinquent conduct
to be atoned for.

So then the boy problem takes on two as-
pects, the one of provision, the other of preven-
tion. Or we may state the problem in terms of
the normal and abnormal aspects—one treating
of how to provide for the normal] satisfaction
in the growth of boys, the other treating of how
we may prevent the causes of abnormal satis-
factions in the life of boys that make our prob-
lem an acute one.

Faminy Neaurct a Soctan Cause

In many families, and not alone among the
lower grades in the social scale, boys are not
taught in any adequate way the meaning of

266 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

their developing bodily functions. Parents
neglect to inform their children of the sacred-
ness of sex, and of the dangers in the paths of
unlawful gratification of otherwise normal de-
sires. We cannot begin too soon to teach our
boys in the home the positive as well as the
negative phases of bodily functioning, for they
will soon learn from others for good or bad,
and reproach us for our neglect or thank us
for our forethought. In talking with a layman
some time ago whose son was then a freshman
in college, the conversation turned on the sub-
ject of parental obligation in this matter, and
he told me that his son had just written him, ex-
pressing his gratitude to a father who had been
wise enough to tell him of the dangers that
confront many a young man away from home
for the first time.

Parents often neglect to provide for the
normal expression of the instincts for play and
recreation, and then wonder why their boys are
guilty of truancy from home, as well as from
the school, and later in life they may become
truants from gainful occupations, and a life of
crime is often the outcome. I know a hard-
working farmer who plays tennis at the noon
hour, and at sunset after an early supper, with
his three growing lads, or takes them to the
ball game in the village Saturday afternoons,
or during the long winter nights plays table and

BES

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SOCIAL NEGLECT OF BOYS 267

parlor games, or reads to them a good story;
and it is safe to say that there is not the slight-
est chance of these boys ever becoming guilty
of abnormal gratification of the play instincts
and desires for healthful recreation.

The family also often neglects to guard the
boy’s companionships. This point cannot be too
strongly emphasized, for what a boy learns
from his companions in the play period of life
will often determine for him his choices in the
period of youth. Here the parents must be
positive, firm, and frank in giving the boy
reasons why he shall not companion with cer-
tain other boys in the neighborhood. It is a
fact that needs to be understood by parents
and teachers that conduct controls our thinking
as much as our thinking controls our conduct.
Many a boy is incited to unlawful gratifications
by the memory in adolescence of conduct that
had no meaning to him in earlier childhood.
We cannot, therefore, guard too well the en-
vironmental sources of the boy’s life repre-
sented by his companionships.

Again, parents frequently neglect to teach
boys the positive things in relation to life. In-
stead of seeking to guide the energies of youth
in channels of useful service, they often seek
to repress energies that overflow in mischievous
currents because no better channel is offered.
Instead of whipping a boy for painting the

268 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

front gate with mud from the gutter it is better
to direct and encourage this gift by giving him
a chance to whitewash the fence in the back lot.
Instead of telling a boy nine times a day how
he will escape the bad by not doing certain
things tell him ten times a day how he may at-
tain the good by doing certain things. In other
words, parental neglect to provide for legiti-
mate exercise of the boy’s normal activities is
a frequent cause of badness in otherwise normal
boys.

Community NEGLECT A SocraL Cause

It is easy to see that in many cases the family
cannot handle the boy problem successfully be-
cause of the neglect of the community to co-
operate with the family in providing for the
needs of the boys. For example, in the crowded
quarters of the tenement districts of our cities
it is impossible for parents to provide for the
control of the energies of boyhood. We know
the effect of the municipal! playground upon the
statistics of juvenile crime in certain localities,
hence it is only a matter of common sense for
us to conclude that failure to provide such fa-
cilities for play is a social cause of the crimes
reported to the juvenile courts of the cities.

Inadequate school facilities, which places the
boys on the streets for a long period of the day,
are a frequent cause of mischief among the boys

aS
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SOCIAL NEGLECT OF BOYS 269

of the crowded city streets. Neglect in many
communities to provide the means for indus-
trial education results in many a boy who has
no home opportunities becoming a useless mem-
ber of society when he has grown up. I am
quite sure that community neglect in many com-
munities is represented by the failure of school
boards to provide teachers who understand
boys, by the choosing of policemen who have
forgotten the days of boyhood, and by the ap-
pointment of judges who have more regard for
legal precedents than they have human sym-
pathy for a boy who has been brought before
the court for a misdemeanor.

Now, if a community can root out the evil of
junk-stealing by boys through the good sense
of the judge who recommended the punishment
of the junk dealers, the originators of the
traffic, is it not true that failure to do such a
thing by any community in dealing with the
boy victims of illegal traffic in vice is one of
the chief causes of the boy problem of to-day?
There is, therefore, a very wide field for pro-
gressive social action in every community in
providing in a positive way for the conduct of
boys who have been hitherto woefully neglected.

Cuurcu Necuzct a SocraL Cause

Tt should be stated at the outset under this
heading that the adoption of the graded-lesson

270 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

system in the Sunday schools and the emphasis
now being given to the training of teachers
in Sunday-school pedagogy, which includes a
study of child psychology, go a long way in
making up for the neglect by the Church of the
boys that have been within the reach of the
Sunday school. But there are many preachers
and laymen who even to-day, when the district
superintendent asks the disciplinary question in
Quarterly Conference,’ ‘‘Have the rules re-
specting the instruction of children been carried
out?’’ have to answer, as in former days, ‘‘In
part.’’? It is not to our credit that in many
quarters we are still building edifices for the
purpose of public worship at enormous cost,
and little if any provision is being made in these
same quarters for the care, religious instruc-
tion, and social direction of the young life of the
community. I was invited recently to visit and
address a young people’s rally in a church that
has lately completed a splendid ‘‘ parish house,’’
for the social and religious life of the young
people of the community, and I counted pres-
ent on a week night over one hundred boys
between ten and twenty-one years of age. It
may be said here to the credit of the men who
are controlling that enterprise that within the
next five years there will be no ‘‘boy problem’’
in that church community, because the church
1In ‘Methodist Polity.”

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SOCIAL NEGLECT OF BOYS 271

is learning to provide for the normal conduct
of those boys. The failure of the church to
provide such means for the young life of the
community is one of the greatest social causes
of the modern boy problem.

PREVENTIVE SALVATION THE SOLUTION OF THE
Boy PRosBLEM

It is clear to our minds, therefore, that if we
know the chief causes are social, and hence pre-
ventable, it follows as a matter of sound reason
that preventive work in religious social service
is the ultimate solution of the boy problem, even
if we must continue, because of social neglect
by families, communities, and churches, to
utilize methods of reclaiming those who have
not received positive social direction.

How this work may be carried on by re-
ligious social engineering we have outlined in
previous chapters on ‘‘Preventive Social En-
gineering,’’ and ‘‘Preventive Salvation,’’ ‘‘So-
cial Salvation,’’ etc. What I have tried to em-
phasize in all these chapters is this: that while
we are doing the work of rescue, and providing
remedial agencies for the many delinquent, de-
pendent, and defective classes in society, we
should not fail to see that to secure any per-
manent results for social progress we must
place supreme emphasis upon those forms of
social service that deal in a positive way with

272 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

the preventable causes of social ills that are
known. We should not spend all our time in
organizing sewing circles to ‘‘patch the pants
of poverty,’’ when we ought to be engaged in
reforms that will clothe men in the garments
of righteousness, so that they will render social
justice to their fellows and make poverty less
prevalent, if not altogether impossible.

CHAPTER XXIII

THE SOCIAL CAUSES OF THE SPIRITUAL DEATH
RATE

Iw the study of human population the death
rate furnishes us an index to social progress.
We know by experience that among civilized
peoples about one half of the people who are
born die before the age of twenty-six. We also
know that the rate of deaths per one thousand
of the population varies in different localities,
and in communities of the same locality, and it
differs also according to the age periods of the
people from infancy to old age. We know also
from the findings of medical science that the
causes of death of the majority of those who die
so young lie outside the range of the voluntary
conduct of the victims, and are attributable to
causes in environment that are, under an aroused
public opinion, preventable. The facts are so
familiar that relating them here for purposes of
illustration is unnecessary. These facts, how-
ever, furnish us a striking analogy for the study
of what we may popularly term the spiritual
death rate, which furnishes the student of re-
ligious statistics with an index to religious so-

273

274 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

cial progress. Here too we find that about one
half of those in evangelical Protestantism who
may be properly reckoned as having been
touched by the life of the Church in baptism or
nurtured in the home, the Sunday school, and in
the religious groupings of church membership,
pass out of range of the Church’s reckoning
before the age of twenty-one; and without go-
ing into the question of what ultimately becomes
of them, we may include them in making up,
what is here used in the popular sense, the
spiritual death rate. We know also from the
records of religious statistics that this rate
varies in different localities, and in different
communities in the same locality, and varies
with the age periods of those who are under
religious statistical observation. Now, the
question of importance for us in following this
analogy is, Do the causes of the spiritual death
rate (using the term in its popular sense to
mean those who drop out of the Church’s grasp
in adolescence, or as adults by blacksliding
after a religious awakening) lie outside the
range of the voluntary conduct of the persons
involved? I think that we can affirm at once
that some of the causes lie outside of that range,
and may be classed as social because they are
preventable by the awakening of the religious
social consciousness to the point of organizing
agencies that will eliminate them.

AS
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THE SPIRITUAL DEATH RATE 275

NeGuect or CHILDHOOD

The chief social cause of premature death is
neglect of childhood by the community or the
family, and failure to provide against prevent-
able social diseases among adults. We can con-
clude, therefore, at once that the chief social
cause of the spiritual death rate is the neglect,
by some responsible social group under the
Church’s control, to provide for the child life
of the Church, and to ward off the preventable
social forces in the community that destroy
spiritual life and character. This neglect is
represented by our failure to provide for the
normal satisfactions of the dawning religious
consciousness of childhood which is not to be
separated, by a false adult psychology, from
the expressions of normal child-consciousness ;
and, to illustrate further: we often neglect to
change our methods to suit the changing periods
of adolescent development. In fact, with few
exceptions here and there, we have done nothing
to standardize our social machinery for dealing
with the young people at the most critical period
of adolescence, from fifteen to twenty-one, when
the social instincts are seeking conscious direc-
tion; hence our machinery breaks down so
utterly that in some communities the Protestant
churches lose nearly all the young men and
women for that period of life, and for the coun-

276 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

try at large the rate of loss varies by dif-
ferent authoritative standards of reckoning
from forty-two per cent to seventy-five per cent
of all those who have been enrolled as baptized
in childhood or entered as probationers and the
eatechized of the Church.

The fact that the greatest loss in members
to the Church is in that period of adolescence
before the judgment is fully formed and settled
into stable habits of adult life confirms us in
the assertion that the chief social cause of the
spiritual death rate is neglect of childhood by
the religious social groups in the community.
In the study of the causes of juvenile crime we
have discovered that the boy is not a criminal
essentially by virtue of what he has acquired,
but, rather, by virtue of what he has missed.
The report of the secretary of the juvenile
court of New York city confirms this when he
states that of the twelve thousand boys brought
before that body last year (1910), more than
half of them were there because they had no
place to play, which fixed the cause not in the
boy primarily but in the community that had
failed to provide for the normal satisfaction of
the play instincts of this vast army of boys.

This principle is confirmed also by the fact
that the rate of loss varies in different commu-
nities. In communities made up largely of for-
eigners, where the standards of spirituality

AS

“

THE SPIRITUAL DEATH RATE QV

differ from those set by evangelical Protestant-
ism, but where the Protestant Church alone is
ministering to such a community, we find the
rate of loss much higher than in a community
where different standards prevail. Here the so-
cial cause of the spiritual death rate is apparent
in the standards of the community life among
parents and adults which makes it almost im-
possible for the young people of fifteen to
twenty-one years of age, under present methods
of church life, to adopt our standards with re-
spect to social recreation and amusement. We
must, therefore, put the greater emphasis upon
the provision, for the young people of that
period, of those forms of social activity that
will give normal satisfaction to their social in-
stincts and at the same time have in them a
wholesome religious significance. I am very
glad to be able to state that there is to-day an
increasing number of churches that are making
such provision for the young people, and are
standarizing their methods and machinery for
carrying on the work of a parish house, so that
you can count at an ordinary meeting, in one of
them that comes to my mind, over one hundred
boys from fourteen to twenty-one, and on spe-
cial occasions, when a ‘‘social’’ is being held,
an equal number of young girls in their early.
teens. In these same churches, before they
made such provision, the loss was over fifty per

278 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

cent of the young people of the Sunday school
from church membership; to-day the percent-
age is reduced to the minimum.

Still another confirmatory fact of this social
cause is that the rate changes with the age
periods of the young life of the Church. Here
the social neglect is represented by the failure -
of the religious group to change its methods of
treatment of the young life of the community to
suit the changes that are taking place within
the growing children of both sexes. This neg-
lect is being met, in part, by the study of child
psychology in religious pedagogy, and by the
adoption of the graded-lesson system in the
Sunday schools. It will take a generation to
make this new emphasis in religious education
effective, because the greater part of the re-
ligious social machinery for putting it into
operation is in the control of those who, in the
nature of the case, have placed the greater em-
phasis upon rescue methods in salvation rather
than upon preventive measures.

NEGLECT TO OrGanizE ADULT MEMBERS

Another social cause of loss in membership
in the churches is neglect to organize the adult
members of the church in forms of social serv-
ice outside the church building, and in the in-
terest of the community without any special
reference to the maintaining of the individual

AS

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THE SPIRITUAL DEATH RATE 279

ehurch organization—in other words, neglect
to provide the means for spiritual growth
through religious occupational activity. Too
many men in all the churches to-day are still
idle in the market place because ‘‘no man hath
hired’’ them. In the case of adults who have
been brought into the Church through evan-
gelistic effort in the revival meeting, the
largest percentage of these who backslide is
due to lack of spiritual occupational service.
It is, therefore, only a matter of providing re-
ligious social leadership to conserve the adult
forces of the churches.

I was asked recently to address a men’s
Bible class of one of our largest and wealth-
iest suburban churches at their annual banquet.
In that church the social consciousness has been
awakened, and a new parish house is in process
of erection, and these men were anxious to de-
velop a plan for performing a larger service
to the community and for the kingdom of God.
These splendid fellows, nearly one hundred in
number, were not satisfied with ‘‘holding a
service’’; they were now anxious ‘‘to do a serv-
ice’’ outside the church building; so as a result
of their recent conferences with religious social
engineers, and as a result of their own survey
of their community with its social needs, some
of these men will be engaged in work for the
foreigners, mostly Italians, in one quarter of

280 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

the city; another group will be interested in the
problems of religious pedagogy in the Sunday
school; another group will be working for the
codperation of all good men in the government
of the city and in promoting social justice
among all the competing groups of the popula-
tion; still another group will be studying and
working on the problems of industrial peace be-
tween organized labor and organized capital;
still another group will be interested in the
study of organized charities and the prevent-
able causes of poverty and human suffering;
and still others will be interested in the cam-
paign against social diseases, and the evils of
intemperance and the saloon; and at the same
time they will all be consciously codperating
with all good citizens everywhere in building up
that form of orderly government in human so-
ciety that will ultimately take on the character
of the kingdom of God on earth.

Now, these men, because of their daily tasks
as breadwinners and men of affairs in business
and professional life, as well as those in occu-
pational employment, cannot, in the nature of
the case, all have the same type of religious ex-
perience, and unless the Church can relate their
activities to the kingdom of God, and thus give
to them a religious significance, many of these
men will begin to feel that they are doing noth-
ing for the Church worthy of a Christian; and,

AE
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THE SPIRITUAL DEATH RATE 281

unless somebody directs them in the work of
the kingdom, it will be no surprise if later they
are not even found in the market place of
religious employment. There is no religious
movement in modern times that compares in
importance, save that of religious education,
with that of the movement within all Protestant
denominations for the employment of Christian
men in forms of social service in the community.
Neglect to do this has been one of the chief so-
cial causes of the lapses from church member-
ship of adults. No activity carried on by men
which has to do with the comfort, health, and
happiness of the community, and is a necessary
part of the world’s work, should be regarded
merely as ‘‘secular,’’ but in the larger view of
the kingdom of God it should be given a re-
ligious significance, and the man who so works
has the approval of the Master, and should
have no occasion for losing his interest in the
Church.

Space will not permit the consideration of
the other social causes of the spiritual death
rate, such as that which grow out of the de-
velopment of class consciousness, cleavage, and
conflict, that have resulted in revolt from the
spiritual leadership of the Church. Nor have
we the space to treat of the economic phases of
social groupings that cause many to lapse from
the local organization, nor of the positive

282 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

ravages upon religious life by social institutions
sanctioned by the State.

In this chapter I have chosen to lay emphasis
upon what I consider to be the two chief social
factors in the spiritual death rate: first, the
failure of the responsible groups within the
Church to guard the sources of spiritual life
in the growing and unfolding life of the young
people already within her grasp, and, second,
the failure of the Church to guide the adult
members to the sources of power that will give
fiber and force to Christian character.

CHAPTER XXIV
CONSERVATION OF CHRISTIAN RESOURCES

THERE is no subject that has been more thor-
oughly drilled into the social consciousness of
the American people during the past few years
than that of the conservation of our national
resources, or the prevention of waste in the
production and consumption of goods. Also
during recent years this idea of conservation
has been given a more vital application in the
appeal for conservation of the human resources
of our country in the prevention of child labor,
the prevention of social diseases, the avoidance
of accidents in industry, and the prevention of
the traffic in human life for immoral gain. It
is, therefore, in harmony with these great ideas
in the social consciousness of to-day that I wish
to present some of the facts relating to the need
for conservation of our Christian resources
and the prevention of waste in the work of the
kingdom.

Apart from the world-problem of natural
resources available for the good of mankind,
our national resources are so well inventoried
to-day that we now fully recognize that the
problem of conservation and prevention of

283

284. THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

waste touches us at the vital point of our in-
come and daily expenditure for food, fuel, and
shelter.

The problem of disease is one that belongs
to every community as well as to the nation at
large. The death rate and the birth rate are
sufficiently well tabulated and registered that
certain phases of our national progress and of
our racial advantage in the struggle of civiliza-
tion can be demonstrated by them. The ap-
palling budget of human life paid to lust and
greed in industry, and in the reign of vice in
our great cities, has been so clearly placed be-
fore the Parliaments of other nations, and be-
fore our own Congress, that no wise statesman
ean be longer indifferent to or inactive in the
matter of reforms needed.

It must be understood, however, at the out-
set that those who advocate conservation of
resources and prevention of waste have no in-
tention of interfering with the progress of the
nation, with the expansion of legitimate busi-
ness, or with the wholesome and worthy use of
resources, but, on the contrary, they are seek-
ing to increase all these. So with those who are
pointing out the need of the conservation of our
Christian resources and the prevention of waste
in church work; they do not deny progress on
the part of the Church as a whole, but they
would show how the Church can make even

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CONSERVATION OF RESOURCES 285

greater progress if our Christian resources
shall be better conserved and utilized, and the
enormous waste in ministering to the spiritual
needs of the people in many communities
avoided, and the released resources could be
directed into other useful channels of Christian
service.

Tur Facts In THE Case

1. Conservation of our Christian domain, or
churched territory: Historically viewed, the
hardest mission fields at home and abroad to-
day in which to get results are those that com-
prise what may be termed our lost Christian
domain; for example, the Mohammedan world,
the downtown sections of our great cities, and
the rural districts, to say nothing of certain
fields in European countries, where the lack of
personal consciousness of human redemption
is so prevalent that evangelism of the New Tes-
tament type is imperatively needed.

The territory around the Mediterranean that
is now occupied by Mohammedanism was lost
to Christianity largely because the governments
of the eastern and western branches of the old
Roman empire and the new Christian regime
had not been fully made Christian from the
viewpoint of the simplest interpretations of the
social teachings of Jesus and of the apostles,
John and Paul. If the Church in those days

286 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

had ministered to the whole man, body and soul,
through the social agencies of government at its
command, it would have been impossible for
such a new cult to make its imperial way
throughout all that region of Christian terri-
tory and even to menace the very existence
of Christian civilization. So in every similar
field, not so clearly defined territorially, where
another than the true Christian faith has
become dominant, it has been either a narrow
theology or an even narrower range of service
that has left the people in many quarters scat-
tered and distressed as sheep not having a
shepherd, for some one else to gather or
destroy.

In the downtown sections of some of our
cities we are returning to our abandoned tasks
at an enormously increased expenditure in se-
curing adequate quarters for our socialized
churches, and with a handicap of workers who
have not been trained in the actual field where
social consciousness and conduct count for more
than sermon and song, especially when these
are taken from the ‘‘barrel’’ of the superan-
nuate, or the ‘‘trunk’’ of the novitiate, and the
discarded hymn books of an uptown congre-
gation.

In the rural districts the churches are losing
ground, not always because of the diminishing
population, but in many instances because of

AS
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CONSERVATION OF RESOURCES 287

the Church’s lack of adaptation in method and
character of service adequate to meet the needs
of population change in type or in social status.

2. Our resources in the young life of the
multitudes who go through our Sunday schools
and are baptized into the Christian faith, who
slip away from us during the period of ado-
lescence because the methods in presenting our
message make no appeal to their new conscious-
ness, nor protect them by social ties from the
maelstrom of the city streets and the lure of
halls where passion masters reason.

We have as yet secured no adequate statis-
tics as to the numbers of the unchurched who
have been actually within the grasp of the
Church in the Sunday schools or in other re-
ligious organizations, but there is a settled con-
viction everywhere among Christian workers
that the numbers of such are very great. Some
say that four out of every five of the more than
ten thousand juvenile delinquents who have
passed through the courts in recent years and
have been put in charge of the probation officers
in the city of New York, have been at some time
in vital relation to the churches of Protestant-
ism and Roman Catholicism, or the Jewish
synagogue.

A distinguished member of the Methodist
denomination, who has spent the most of his
active ministry in city mission work in New

288 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

York, told me some time ago that from personal
investigation of hundreds of cases he was con-
vinced that four out of every five of the men
and women rescued in the Bowery missions
were at some time in their early life vitally con-
nected with the Church or Sunday school, and
he further added that the same could be said
of the prisoners in our reformatories and jails
all over the country.

3. Our resources in men who are members of
the Church and congregation but who have not
yet been given a man’s job in church work. Our
notions of church work have been so confined
in some places to the service that a man could
render inside the church building by simply at-
tending or leading a ‘‘service’’ that actually
thousands of able men in every denomination
within our cities have been given no adequate
task within the kingdom of God. They are
often anxious to do something, but, like those
who stood involuntarily idle in the market place
in Jesus’s day, they can truthfully say to the
modern master of men as he asks why they are
idle, ‘‘No man hath hired us.”’

4. Our resources in buildings that are used
but one or two days in the week, if at all,
for the real work of the kingdom of God among
men. I have in mind now one of our great in-
dustrial centers in the Hast, with a population
of over three hundred thousand, where, in the

“=
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CONSERVATION OF RESOURCES 289

most populous center, there are within a radius
of half a mile seven Methodist churches whose
auditoriums are open only parts of one day in
the week, and some other room or rooms only
one or two more evenings in the week, and with
the exception of one church, the congregations
of the whole number could be gotten comfort-
ably into the largest one Sunday evenings, and
there would still be left ample room in the
‘amen corner’’ for all special visitors. Now,
in looking up the statistics in the Minutes of
the Conference in which this city is located, I
discovered that the estimated property value
of these seven churches, including five parson-
ages situated near the church buildings, aggre-
gates more than half a million dollars ($523,-
000), and the salaries paid to the seven pastors
during the last Conference year! amounted to
$13,000. Observe that I have not mentioned the
cost of lighting, heating, janitors’ fees, music,
repairs, and other expenses. The number of
members reported for the seven was only 2,437,
and the total number of probationers fifty-six;
the number of Sunday school scholars, 1,792.

In that same city, but in another section far
removed from the center above described, is
one Methodist church with a property, includ-
ing parsonage, estimated at $105,000, paying its
pastor the sum of $3,000, and reporting a mem-
“7 April, 1909-1910.

290 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

bership of 1,215, with forty-one probationers
and 927 scholars in the Sunday school, with 110
teachers. Here is one church ministering to
half as many people at about one fourth of the
cost of the seven. Now, it is only a matter of
common business sense to arrive at the con-
clusion that there is need in that city of con-
servation of resources and prevention of waste.
And, to make it more apparent, we need but to
mention the fact that within the same territory
of those same Methodist churches there are
about the same number of other churches of
different denominations, with whom the Meth-
odists affiliate and exchange pulpits and mem-
bers on occasion.

5. Our resources in our Protestant neighbors
who could help us harvest our fields, or could be
spared, or could spare us, to harvest other fields
where the harvest is indeed plenteous and the
laborers are few. And you will recall that Jesus
made this statement and the appeal for more
laborers with reference to the home field. In
Vermont and other New England States the
work of conservation and prevention of waste
has already begun to take place, according to
a recent publication of the Vermont Interde-
nominational Commission. This need is also
made strikingly evident in a report of Dr. A. H.
Collins, of the Des Moines Conference, on his
studies of the conditions in the rural communi-

a
_

CONSERVATION OF RESOURCES 291

ties of the Creston District, embracing a terri-
tory of 3,000 square miles and 100,000 popu-
lation. In this territory there are at present
279 churches of the Protestant denominations,
one for every 360 people. Sixty-two of these
have gone out of commission in recent years,
either through the lack of the support of a min-
ister or by voluntary union with other churches.
Highty-seven of the remaining 217 are Meth-
odist, and this advantage of Methodism in hold-
ing the field has been attributed to the useful-
ness of the local preachers.

6. The prevention of waste through lapses
after conversion, or the reduction of the spir-
itual death rate. We are all aware of the fact
that, apart from the enormous waste through
the period of adolescence, we have a large num-
ber of persons dropping out of our churches
whom the Methodists call ‘‘backsliders’’; these
aggregate as many, if not more in some cases,
as the number we hold after revival efforts.
And, furthermore, the vast numbers who are
lost through ‘‘removal without letters,’’ and
are never recovered from the vast multitudes
in the great tenement and apartment house dis-
tricts in our large cities, and in the suburban
communities, not to mention the many who
lapse through indifference or because of their

1See Central Christian Advocate, November 24, 1909, p. 6, “A
Valuable Study in Rural Religion.”

292 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

interest in some other social organization in
which they find a stronger and sometimes a
more congenial comradeship.

7. Conservation of our opportunities for so-
cial leadership.t The opportunities for leader-
ship in the modern social movement are the
points of strategic interest for the Church to-
day if it hopes ever to master this movement,
for, after all, when we come to study the essence
of the modern social movement we find its real
motive power lies in the neglected interests of
humanity that had a large place of emphasis in
the program of Jesus. Socialism, at heart, is
but the organized consciousness of people in the
struggle with poverty; the passion for social
justice is at the foundation of the labor move-
ment; the appreciation of life and health is at
the basis of modern philanthropy and charity,
represented in all their attempts at social
prophylaxis.

8. Conservation of our resources in educa-
tional institutions and those factors that meet
the recreative and esthetic demands of human
nature. Most of these were founded under
Christian auspices, but there is serious doubt
in many quarters whether we shall be able to
conserve their influence as such, and in so far
as some of them are concerned, like the theater,
that used to be a Christian institution, there

1 For a fuller discussion see Chapter X.

AS

=

CONSERVATION OF RESOURCES 293

seems to be little hope expressed of ever re-
claiming it from the paganism into which in
most countries it has degenerated. Even the
Passion Play at Oberammergau, with its inter-
vening decade of criticism and preparation,
does not prove to be a hopeful exception.

Our task seems to be clearly defined with
regard to these mighty social forces, and that
is to dominate them with the Christian con-
sciousness, while admitting the natural social
differentiation that must necessarily take place
with the social process with which the kingdom
of God on earth is not at variance.

Wuat SHatt WE Do?

In view of the facts with which we are all
more or less familiar, and with the conviction
aroused that something more than we are now
undertaking should be done, the question of
what to do is the most natural one, and how to
do it is even more important.

Now, as a matter of fact, we learn how to do
things usually by observing how somebody else
does the same thing we are expected to do, or
something like it. So that the question of
method, or program, is simply one of adapta-
tion, imitation, or readjustment.

It may be safely said that we have not as yet
many successful examples of conservation of
resources and prevention of waste, on a large

294 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

scale, to observe. We have just begun to or-
ganize for it in the nation, and in industry, and
in child-saving, and in the prevention of dis-
eases and crimes; so, as religious workers, we
are to keep awake to the need and get into the
movement with the rest, and win in this race
where there is no rivalry but the haste to save
life.

1. In the first place, we must study our
problem of conservation and prevention. We
must get the facts before the people in an in-
telligent way, and I mean by that the facts as
they may apply at the crossroads, or on the
village streets, or in the town or city, as well
as those greater things that have to do with
the nation and with world-wide humanity. We
must insist upon intelligent social diagnosis be-
fore applying our social remedies, This is be-
ing done in many places already by the various
denominations through groups representing the
movement for social service. It needs, how-
ever, to be broadened and intensified.

2. There must be developed a new type of
minister, or religious worker, whom I name the
social engineer, who is to make this work of
conservation and prevention his chief business,
under the direction of the pastor in charge or
the district superintendent, and in many cases
he must be the preacher himself: a social en-
gineer for Sunday-school children who under-

AS
=

CONSERVATION OF RESOURCES 295

stands the psychology of the adolescent and
Inows the social forces which dominate the
thinking and the conduct of young people; a
social engineer for the men of the Church who
have no work to do in many cases worthy of a
man of strength—one who knows the city and
its needs and can relate the men and women
of the Church and community to the civic life
of the town or city. We need another type of
social engineer for the country problem, who
will be able to direct the social forces of a whole
county and relate them to the best interests of
the State and nation.

Another type of engineer is needed, who will
be able to deal intelligently with the foreigners
in the villages and towns and the great colonies
of them in our large cities.

In other words, we need a new type of local
preacher, who does not have to dress like a
preacher, or have orders and accept calls to
preach elsewhere; a man who knows the value
of social machinery and knows how to run it,
and stays on the job all the time. Our theo-
logical schools ought to train such men.

3. We must insist on keeping the ecclesiastical
carpetbaggers out of administrative offices in
the fields of spiritual conquest. This does not
apply to the higher offices alone, but to the less
responsible positions in the local church com-
munity. We have suffered greatly in church

296 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

work by allowing people to hold office because
they desired the honor rather than a place to
serve with efficiency, while others more capable
and yet more modest were allowed to remain
unused in these important tasks of the kingdom.

4. We must place supreme emphasis upon
preventive salvation, so that no allurements of
the old environment will be able to break the
social bond of Christian fellowship that should
keep together all the members of the household
of faith. This must be done especially with
reference to the young people of the Sunday
schools in the great cities where the parents
are not members of the church, and whose so-
cial customs are ofttimes alien to the life of
the true Christian young man or woman in
America.

5. We must learn to codperate by organized
effort with all the social forces of the com-
munity that have a like purpose with ourselves,
and not insist too strongly upon our method or
even upon agreement in the details of working
our plan, but, rather, place emphasis upon
organization in mass effort to overthrow the
organized powers of evil, having always a su-
preme confidence in the integrity of human
nature, that it will finally respond to our appeal
and take on the highest forms of expression in
character that is to be the test of citizenship in
the kingdom of our God on this earth.

CHAPTER XXV
THE SOCIAL EMPHASIS IN MODERN EDUCATION

At a meeting of the Department of Superin-
tendents of the National Educational Associa-
tion, held in Chicago more than a year ago,
a distinguished educator made the following
statement: ‘‘Civilization is running short of
men who know and can do’’; and he said this
notwithstanding the fact that we had in the
secondary schools of our country at that time
over 800,000 boys and girls pursuing a four
years’ course, and in our colleges and universi-
ties over 125,000 men and women pursuing an
additional four years’ course to fit them for
modern social leadership. Senator Elihu Root
said, in an address at Albany, New York, when
tendered a reception by that body, that the tasks
of government are becoming so stupendous it
is a serious question whether we can find men
capable of performing them.

Ata conference on the Country Church called
by the International Committee of the Young
Men’s Christian Association, in New York, it
was stated by one of their able secretaries that
they found it difficult to secure sufficient young
men who were capable of organizing and con-

297

298 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

ducting the social tasks of the country work.
And it was the consensus of opinion of a dis-
tinguished group of educators from colleges of
agriculture, theological seminaries, universities,
and men of affairs in home-missionary and
church federation work in the rural communi-
ties, and superintendents of the county schools,
that the problem of the uplift of the rural life
of America depends upon the kind of trained
social leadership we can put in the field.

There are socialized churches in all our great
cities to-day that demand pastors and workers
of the highest type of efficiency, and fields yet
unmanned that must be filled, if at all, by the
products of our educational institutions. So
with the problems of social engineering in busi-
ness and industrial life, in government, legis-
lation, and in organized charity and philan-
thropy, in public sanitation, hygiene, and
medical practice; all are demanding as never
before the highest degree of social efficiency
in the individual. So, then, we may conclude
that the emphasis in modern education must
necessarily be placed upon those factors in the
educational process that result in the social-
ization of human life in consciousness and
activity.

The real emphasis in modern education is not
in teaching merely a subject, or bringing to the
mind of the student a certain amount of subject

AS

SOCIAL EMPHASIS IN EDUCATION 299

matter, but, rather, in the teaching of a person
—the development and quickening of the
powers of personality so that the individual
will use the facts of knowledge. In other words,
education means the leading out of the student
into all the fields and avenues of knowledge,
the unfoldment of all his normal instincts into
the full development of all their corresponding
faculties and powers as they are manifest in
the fully developed man. To state it in still
another way: real education means the relating
of the individual to life as expressed in society
—the socializing of the individual.

The educator must understand what society
really is, and what society does for the indi-
vidual who is the product of society through
heredity and environment plus that power of
self-initiative expressed in what we call free-
dom of personality. He must understand the
effect of society upon human nature, and must
know something of what the individual is capa-
ble when his social nature is fully developed.

The teacher should have a view of the whole
social field in order to understand where the
educational emphasis of our day must be placed,
and must know what the social aim of educa-
tion is with respect to the social units which
are capable of instruction. He should have a
clear conception of the social mind and of the
social consciousness, and should know the fac-

300 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

tors within reach for their development, edu-
cation, and enlightenment.

The educator should know also what is the
function of social organization, and the origin
of those institutions and organizations that aim
to meet the needs of human life, whether they
be immediately felt and understood or more
remotely discerned.

There is also involved in this point of em-
phasis in modern education the sociological in-
terpretation of the great divisions of the educa-
tional subject-matter, such as history, language,
law, religion, morals, and government, as well
as the study of human progress and the norms
by which it may be measured.

Way We Neep Tuis Cuance or Empnasis

In former years the emphasis in our educa-
tional system was placed upon the making of
every pupil a breadwinner—a self-supporting
citizen when he became able on leaving the
school to take up the active work of a producer
of economic values by labor, whether of the
hand in manual toil, or of the intellect as a
master-workman in managing and directing
others, or as an owner and operator, or a
director of corporate capital.

But as a result of this emphasis—and no one
will doubt the efficiency of American enter-
prise—we now find that many have in the proc-

AS

SOCIAL EMPHASIS IN EDUCATION — 301

ess of winning their bread not scrupled to take
the bread of another; or, in other words, they
have not been governed in their wealth-getting
by a strong, healthful, moral sentiment that has
prevented them from taking undue advantage
of their fellows when opportunity for graft was
presented.

In the last few years our country has been
awakened to the astonishing amount of, and the
widespread effects of, unrighteous and unlaw-
ful, and even grossly immoral, dealings of some
men highly educated and holding positions of
trust both in public and private life. I need
hardly mention for illustration the frauds un-
earthed in the postal service, the land frauds in
connection with the disposal of the publie do-
main, the insurance scandals by some of the
largest and most prosperous companies in the
world, the evils of legislative assemblies through
bribes of the lobbyists, municipal crimes of the
boodlers and grafters in our great cities all over
the country, the revelations of adulterations
through the investigations by the Pure Food
Commission, the evils of rebating, fraudulent
weighing, and other evils brought to light by
the Interstate Commerce Commission, the Cus-
toms Department at New York, and the Depart-
ment of Justice. All these have resulted not
because we as a nation lacked education, but in
spite of it. May we, therefore, not rightly as-

302 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

sume that these things have been possible in
large measure because the emphasis in our edu-
cational process has been upon the individual
interest, to the neglect of the larger social in-
terest which is not antagonistic to the best
interests of the individual, because it seeks to
relate him to life in such a way that he will
receive infinitely more of good from society as
he seeks to serve society by carrying on the
business in which he is engaged with a con-
sciousness of other men’s needs, rights, and
privileges as well as of his own.

We have in many instances been taught ex-
tremely false notions of economics in business
life—that ‘‘competition is the life of trade,’’
when, as a matter of common observation, if
pushed too far, competition is the death of
trade. The only legitimate competition which
really helps trade is that of industrial and com-
mercial efficiency which seeks to better the
service to the public—the consumer—by facili-
ties and courtesies in delivery, and by improv-
ing the quality of the commodities. We need to
emphasize everywhere this fact that to-day a
man can succeed not by destroying his fellows
but, rather, by serving them.

The need for social emphasis in modern edu-
cation may be expressed, therefore, from sev-
eral points of view.

First, from the fact of the changes in modern

B=
x

SOCIAL EMPHASIS IN EDUCATION 303

society as a result of the phenomenal growth of
the nation both in population and in prestige—
change in the character of our population from
an agricultural to an industrial people, from a
predominantly rural to an urban population.
The growth of our towns and cities has made
the town-meeting as a socializer of the com-
munity impracticable, hence our city govern-
ments have changed, our methods of business
and of industry have been revolutionized.
There is no longer a chance for the individual
to learn much of social life while at his em-
ployment. The newspaper has superseded the
store and the shop as disseminators of the news.
The saloon, with its accompanying evils, has
followed in the wake of the tenement and the
lodging-house—systems of housing that have
modified the family life of the nation. Even the
Church, which has always played such an im-
portant part as a socializer of the people, does
not reach the vast hordes of our city population,
nor is it meeting in any adequate way the social
problem of the rural population of to-day.
Second, from the viewpoint of the change in
the character of the population movements of
the present. In former years the bulk of migra-
tion within the national domain was by family
groups, which set up the socializing agencies
for the needs of the new community life of the
frontiers wherever they went—the church, the

304 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

school, the store and shop, and the family house-
hold. To-day, however, the largest number of
migrations is by individuals who must put up
with the lodging-house, where true family life
is unknown and impossible, and with the chang-
ing social order of an industrial community.
This lack of family life and this change in so-
cial environment slacken the ties of religious
and family restraint, weaken other social bonds,
and make the creation of others more difficult
both for the school, the church, and for the com-
munity government.

Third, from the viewpoint of the changed con-
ditions of our industrial life. The market to-
day is for many commodities world-wide, and
commerce is no longer bound by the borders of
the State or hedged up by the frontiers of a
nation. This condition leads to serious prob-
lems of interstate commerce and of interna-
tional relations. The Drago doctrine is an illus-
tration of this change in international com-
merce, and the creation of an interstate com-
merce commission and the giving to it of
enlarged powers illustrates this point with re-
spect to commerce and trade within our own
country.

Fourth, from the fact of the modern move-
ments toward church federation from fields
where there has been interdenominational
cleavage and sometimes actual religious con-

ES

SOCIAL EMPHASIS IN EDUCATION — 305

flict; organized movements for the mastery of
the religious problems of the cities, the rural
communities, and the evangelization of the mis-
sion fields of the world. The need for emphasis
upon distinctions of creed and content of be-
liefs is no longer apparent, but, rather, the need
for emphasis upon the problems of service
through the channels of religious social or-
ganization.

Fifth, from the viewpoint of political govern-
ment and legislation there is need for emphasis
upon social control rather than upon mere ma-
jority rule: government by enlightened public
opinion rather than by a political boss or a
group of ‘‘vested interests.’’ We should secure
legislation after intelligent consideration of the
needs of the people at large rather than at the
beck and will of a politician for partisan or per-
-sonal ends. There is increasing need for men
with social training for the tasks of government
and legislation who are willing to sacrifice per-
sonal gain for the common good. There is need
for an educated public service to meet the
challenge of an aggressive social democracy
which may have its place as a counter-irritant
in a monarchy but should have no soil in which
to root itself in a free republic like our own.

Sixth, from the moral viewpoint we have
been too individualistic in our ethics, allowing
the individual to hide behind the corporation

— 806 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

and then denying the ethical responsibilities of
the group of which he is a member, hence ‘‘ Not
guilty’’ is the verdict of the judge or jury in
most cases. We need to push our ethical prin-
ciples of moral responsibility to the wider
group, and hold all the factors of human society
which possess the attributes of personality to
a strict accountability to the demands of the
moral social order.

Seventh, from the viewpoint of constructive
and preventive philanthropy. We need an in-
creasing number of trained workers for the vast
fields of social service among the growing multi-
tudes of the dependent, defective, and delin-
quent classes of our population. We have
been fumigating the patient rather than the
building where he contracted the disease; we
have been improving tenements rather than the
economic system that made the slum possible.
We have been fighting typhoid in the sick-cham-
ber rather than by controlling the watershed
that supplies our city reservoir. Social educa-
tion does not ignore the work of rescue, but
places supreme emphasis upon preventive sal-
vation.

Kighth, from the viewpoint of the world’s
peace. Race antagonism, international preju-
dice, and class conflict are facts of modern
civilization that must be reckoned because of
the costs in times of peace for the contingencies

AS

SOCIAL EMPHASIS IN EDUCATION — 307

of war. There is everywhere evident the pas-
sion for peace in the human heart, when peace
can be secured with social justice. It is the task
of our educational system to make war with
weapons of death unnecessary and impossible
because all responsible social factors of civili-
zation may learn a better way.

From all these points of view the need is
great for the social emphasis in modern educa-
tion being placed in all our educational institu-
tions upon the relating of the student to the
intricate network of social institutional life of
this age, so that whether he stops at the grades,
or at the end of the secondary school course, or
with the college diploma, or after the pursuit of
his graduate studies in some specialty, he may
at every stage in the process of education go out
with some fundamental notion of what society
“has done, is doing, and may yet do for him; and
he should go also with some definite and clear
convictions as to what he may and ought to do
for society.

We may conclude, therefore, that the social
emphasis in modern education is to be placed
upon the development of personality in social
consciousness, upon the efficiency of the indi-
vidual through social organization, and upon
the utilization of knowledge and skill in the
fields of need through social engineering.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ADDAMS, JANE.—Twenty Years at Hull House. Newer
Ideals of Peace.

Bacon.—Essays—On Friendship.

BarLey, WiLL1am B.—Modern Social Conditions.

Casot.—Social Service and the Art of Healing.

CooLtry, CHARLES H.—Human Nature and the Social Order.
Social Organization. Article on the Social Conscious-
ness, Pub. American Sociological Society, Vol. I, pp.
101, 190.

DEVINE, EpwarD T.—Misery and Its Causes.

Gippines, FRANKLIN H.—Principles of Sociology.

GuMPLOWITz.—Der Rasenkampf.

HeEGEL.—Vorlesungen tiber der Philosophie der Geschichte.

Hints, NEWELL DwicHt.—Man’s Value to Society.

Knorr, S. ApotpHus.—Tuberculosis a Preventable and Cur-
able Disease.

Mayo-SmirH.—Statistics and Sociology.

Mort, Joun R.—The Future Leadership of the Church.

Patten, Simon N.—The New Basis of Civilization.

Ross, Epwarp A.—Sin and Society. Latter Day Sinners
and Saints. Social Psychology.

RavuscHENBuscH.—Christianity and the Social Crisis.

Spencer, HERBERT.—Data of Ethics.

Strong, Jos1an.—The Challenge of the City.

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Trppy.—The Socialized Church.

WarpasseE, James P., M.D.—Medical Sociology.

Wounpt, WitHELM—Volkerpsychologie.

PERIODICALS
Tue SocraL EDUCATIONAL QUARTERLY, 1907.
Tur AMERICAN JOURNAL oF SocrioLocy, University of Chicago
Press.
Tar AMERICAN Economic ASSOCIATION QUARTERLY, Cam-
bridge, Massachusetts.

311

312 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

PUBLICATIONS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR LABOR LEG-
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Tue Sunpay ScHoot JournaL, Eaton & Mains, New York.

MetTHopist Men, Laymen’s Publishing Company, New York,
William P. Patterson, Editor.

THr WESTERN CHRISTIAN AbyocaTsE, Cincinnati, Ohio, Levi
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THE Survey, New York.

, ADDITIONAL Books FoR COLLATERAL READING

AppAmMs, JANE.—Democracy and Social Ethics, 1902.

BLacKMER, FRANK W.—Hlements of Sociology, 1905.

Buck, WINIFRED.—Theory and Practice of Boys’ Self-Gov-
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BUTTERFIELD, Kenyon L.—Chapters in Rural Progress, 1908.
The Country Church and the Rural Problem, 1911.
CHANCELLOR, WILLIAM H.—A Theory of Motives, Ideals,
and Values in Education, 1907.

Commons, JoHN R.—Races and Immigrants in America,
1907.

DEALEY, JAMES QUAYLE.—Sociology, 1909.

DEvINE, Epwarp T.—Principles of Relief, 1904. Misery and
Its Causes, 1909.

ELLwoop, Cartes A.—Sociology and Modern Social Prob-
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Ferri, Enrico.—Criminal Sociology, 1896.

GippINGs, FRANKLIN H.—Descriptive and Historical So-
ciology, 1906.

GLADDEN, WASHINGTON.—Social Salvation, 1902.

Hatt, Tuomas C.—Social Solutions, 1910.

Ler, JosepH.—Constructive and Preventive Philanthropy,
1902.

LeBon, Gustave.—The Crowd, New Edition, 1903.

MATHEWS, SHAILER.—The Social Teachings of Jesus, 1897.
The Church and the Changing Order, 1907.

Morgan, Lewis H.—Ancient Society, 1877.

Morrow, Prince I.—Social Diseases and Marriage, 1904.

PEaboDy, Francis G.—Jesus Christ and the Social Ques:
tion, 1901. The Approach to the Social Problem, 1910.

we
a

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Ross, Epwarp A.—Foundations of Sociology, 1905. Social
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SMALL, ALBION W.—General Sociology, 1905. The Meaning
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Stonzr, ALFRED H.—Studies in the "American Race Problem,
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Strone, JostaH.—Religious Movements for -Social Better-
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Sumner, W. G.—Folkways, 1907.

TaRDE, GABRIEL.— Laws of Imitation, Translated by E. C.
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TENNEY, Epwarp Payson.—Contrasts in Social Progress,
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THOMAS, W. I.—Sex and Society, 1907.

Travis, THoMAs.—The Young Malefactor, 1908.

Vincent, George E.—The Social Mind in Education, 1897.

Warp, Lester F.—Psychic Factors of Civilization, 1893.
Pure Sociology, 1903. Applied Sociology, 1906.

Warp, Harry F.—Social Ministry, 1910.

WESTERMARK, E.—The History of Human Marriage, 1891.
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Wittson, Rosert N.—The American Boy and the Social
Evil, 1905.

INDEX

Ability, its lack a Church peril,
129

Accidents. See Industrial Acci-
dents

Administration, the Church to
develop leadership in, 124

Adolescence, great cost in re-
claiming losses of, 207; loss
to the Sunday school in pe-
riod of, -131; Sunday school
loss to be prevented, 177, 178,
209, 210; work of a Sunday
school teacher, during, 229,
230

Adult Bible class, in service,
279, 280; a noneffective, 171,
172

Affinity, not a true basis for
friendship, 116

Afflicted, the, and church phi-
lanthropy, 156, 164-166

Anti-Saloon work, 37

Association of presence and ac-
tivity, 15, 16

Banquets and social organiza-
tion, 25

Bible-training classes for social
work, 259, 260

Blindness, caused by infection in
infancy, 164, 165; prevented,
203, 204

Blood relationship a social fac-
tor, 44

Boy problem, 146; the bad, 166;
preventive salvation the solu-
tion of, 271, 272; social causes
of the, 262-272

Capital—Organized, conflict of,
xii

Caste, 51

Causes of conditions to be
studied, 153

Central Labor Union, church
delegates to, 243, 244

Character, of an efficient indi-
vidual, 60-62

Charity. See Organized Charity.
Evil of indiscriminate, 163>
164; socialized, 157-168

Childhood, neglect of, a cause of
spiritual death, 275-278

Child-labor, 110

Children, cruelty to, 17

Child-saving, 230

Child-welfare, 17, 18

Church, the, and industrial prob-
lems to be related, 179, 180;
and municipal reform, 179;
and the workingman, 238-
250; carrying it to the people,
252-255; educating for social
efficiency, 76-80; how it can
help the labor movement, 244—
248; how the labor movement
can help it, 249, 250; modern
social movement not mastered

317

318

by, 132, 133; neglect of the
boy, 269-271; nonattendance
at 129-131; peril of, 128-133;
present attitude toward the
labor movement, 241-244;
spiritual death rate of, 131,
132; to develop leadership in

city government, 123, 124;.

to develop leadership in legis-
lation and administration,
124; to develop leadership in
organized charity, 126, 127;
to develop leadership in or-
ganized labor, 125, 126; to
discover powers to the in-
dividual, 78; what can it do
for social salvation? 235-237

Church buildings, conserved as a
Christian resource, 288-290

Church federation, better than

competition, xvi; means
change of emphasis, 304, 305;
team work in, 178, 179

Church membership, unorgan-
ized, causes spiritual death,
278-282

Church unity, international les-
sons and, 9

Church work and the social set-
tlement, 258-261; change in
methods of, xvi; codperation
in, 23; friction in, xx; illustra-
tion of religious engineering,
33, 34; lack of social engineers
in, xx

Cities, congestion of, xi; causes
of, 187-190; fact of, 183-186;
relief of, 196, 197; results of,
186, 187; sanitation of, xii

THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

City, the, an attractive force,
187-190; high rents in, 188,
189; not a menace, 182, 183

City government, the Church to
be a leader in, 123, 124

City problem, the, 181-193

Civie pride, developed, 89, 90

Class-consciousness, highly de-
veloped, xi

Class distinctions, 40, 41

Classification of social machin-
ery, 29; social, 38-41; varie-
ties of social, 41-43

Class legislation, 73, 74

Commercial life, changed, 304

Community, neglect of the boy,
268, 269; team work, 169-180

Commuters, 181

Companionships of the boy, 207

Competition, codperation better
than, xv, xvi; in social serv-
ice, 24, 25; a wrong concep-
tion, 302

Comte, August,
100

Conditions of living vary, 104;
to be studied, 150

Conflict of labor and capital, xii

Congestion of population, causes
of, 187-190; fact of, 183-186;
relief of, 190-193; results of,
186, 187

Congregational Church and the
labor movement, 242

Consciousness of kind, 21

Consecration to public welfare,
20

Conservation of child life in
church work, 287; of Chris-

on progress,

INDEX

tian resources, 283-296; of
Christian resources in educa-
tion, 292, 293; of church
buildings, 288-290; of oppor-
tunities for social leadership,

292; of resources through
other denominations, 290,
291; of workers in church

work, 288; what shall we do?
293-296
Constancy, an element of friend-

ship, 118
Conversion, waste after, 291
Cooley, Professor, on social
mind, 82

Coéperation, better than com-
petition, xvi; by organized
effort, 296; in settlement
work, 256, 257; in social serv-
ice for the community, 169-
180

Country church, how to main-
tain its efficiency, 108, 109

Crime caused by congestion of
population, 186; prevented,
201-203

Deaconess work, enlarged, 259

Death rate, spiritual, 131-133;
causes should be sought, 132;
neglect of childhood a cause,
275-278; social causes of, 273,
274

Defective classes, environment
and, 158

Definition of social progress, 99-
102; of social sinning, 218-220

Diphtheria, spread of, 223

Disease caused by congestion of

319

population, 186, 187; preven-
tion of, 194-198; problem of,
284
Divinity of man the true basis
of friendship, 117, 118
Divorce and its causes, 109
Downtown churches, how to
maintain the, 108, 286
Drunkenness, prevention of,
198-200; study of the causes
of, 200

Ecclesiastical carpetbaggers, not
to be employed, 295, 296

Economist, idea of progress, 94

Education, change of emphasis
needed, 300-307; conserva-
tion of Christian resources in,
292; emphasis on personality,
299, 300; progress measured,
97, 98; social emphasis in
modern, 297-307; true, 70-72

Educational agencies socialized,
89

Educational institutions, social
efficiency in, 76

Educator, the, demands prog-
ress, 96; idea of progress, 94

Efficiency, the Church educating
for, 76-80; an educational
problem, 70-72; esteem neces-
sary to, 67; knowledge neces-
sary for, xxii; lack of, in an
adult Bible class, 171, 172;
of the country church main-
tained, 108, 109; of individ-
uals, 58-81; of individuals,
hard to estimate, 65, 66; phys-
ical endurance necessary to,

820

67, 68; social—in educational
institutions, 76; in govern-
ment, 73; in industry, 74-76;
in leadership, 58-81; in legis-
lation, 73; in organized char-
ity, 75, 76; in philanthropy,
75, 76; in religious activity,
75; utilized, 72-76; Sunday
schools a training ground for,
77; waste due to lack of, ix

Elimination of mischievous ele-
ments, 154:

Employers, the church and, 245—
247; liability for accidents,
160, 161

Environment and _ defective
classes, 158; regeneration of,
210, 211

Equality, does not exist, 38, 39

Esteem, necessary to efficiency,
67

Ethics, progress measured, 98;
too individualistic, 305, 306

Eugenics, 155

Evils caused by individuals, 11;
not intended, 10, 11

Evolution, not a true basis for
friendship, 116, 117

Factories, encouraged to build
in suburbs, 192

Family disintegration, 114, 115;
neglect of the boy, 265-268; re-
lation to social diseases,109,110

Foreigners, race affinity in the
cities, 189; rural lack of sym-
pathy with, 189, 190

Frankness, an element of friend-
ship, 119

THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

Frauds, discovered, 301, 302

Friendship, as a social force, 112-
121; basis of, 115-118; char-
acteristics of true, 118-120.
Christian, 120, 121

Function of social organization,
19

Gambling, legislation on, 231;
suppressed, 8, 9

Giddings, Franklin H., on prog-
ress, 101; on social mind, 81

Golden Age, the, 92

Golden Rule, the basis of social
justice, 240

Gompers, Samuel, on the liquor
traffic, 162

Government, social efficiency in,
73

Great man in society, the, 59,
62-64

Health. See Public Health; of
school children, xii, xiii

Hebrew people, idea of progress,
93

Hegel, on progress, 99, 100

Heredity and environment, 158;
defectiveness and, 165; guard-
ing the sources of life, 212, 213

Heroism, a social factor, 46

Hospitals, outdoor patients, xiii
team work for social service
in, 175, 176; wanting in rural
communities, 189

Hudson-Fulton celebration, 130,
131

Human nature, integrity of, 355

Humanity, progress of, 102

INDEX

Imitation, the law in settlement
work, 256

Individual, ability to express in
activities, 65; difficult to esti-
mate efficiency of, 65, 66;
efficiency an educational prob-
lem, 70-72; the product of
society, 63; progress, 101, 102

Industrial accidents, a cause of
poverty, 160, 161

Industrial problems, the Church
to be related to, 179, 180

Industry, facilities for, a cause
of congestion, 189; social effi-
ciency in, 74-76

Infant mortality, due to diseased

milk, 139

Insanity and isolation, 64; pre-
vented, 204

Institutions, methods to be

studied, 152, 153
Insurance frauds, 231
Integrity of human nature, 255
Isolation and insanity, 64; and
suicide, 64

Jesus Christ growing in social
estimate, 65; idea of neighbor-
liness, 139; idea of progress, 93

Juvenile delinquency, 263-265;
team work against, 176, 177

Juvenile delinquents and the
laws, 159; stealing junk, 146

Knowledge, necessary for effi-
ciency, xxii

Labor. See Organized Labor
Labor movement, present atti-

321
tude of the Church toward the,
241-244

Law, obsolete, 73, 74

Leadership, conservation of op-
portunities for social, 292; |
diversities in, 35; in church
work, ii; in social service, 25;
social, 122-127; social efli-
ciency in, 58-81; a social fac-
tor, 46

Legislation against social evil,
230-232; the Church to de-
velop leadership in, 124; social
efficiency in, 73

Lewis, Thomas L., on the liquor
traffic, 162, 163

Lincoln, Abraham, activities of, —
68

Liquor traffic, 110, 111; a cause
of poverty, 161-163; organ-
ized character of, 231

Living, standards of, 110

Majority rule, social control to
be emphasized not, 305

Marriage of the unfit to be pre-
vented, 165

Methodist Episcopal Church and
the labor movement, 242, 243;
General Conference on social
problems, 105-107

Methodist Federation for Social
Service, list of problems, 107—
111

Methods called for in social
service, 145; observation of
others, 146-148; of commu-
nity team work, 169-180; of
institutions to be studied, 151,

322

152; preventive, of moral re-
form, xiv; to change with
changing social needs, 261; to
be studied, 152

Migration, now by individuals,
303, 304

Milk, diseased, 139

Minister, the, his task to-day,
Xvili-xx; needs a social en-
gineer, xx, xxi

Mitchell, John, on the liquor
traffic, 162

Model tenements, in New York
city, 184, 185

Mohammedanism, conquered
Christian territory, 285, 286

Monroe, James P., on social
education, 70-72

Moral reform, preventive meth-
ods, xiv

Municipal reform, the Church
and, 179

Mutualism and sin, 214

Nation, progress of a, 102

National Bureau for the Con-
servation of Child-Life, 18,
230

Needs of society and social or-
ganization, 14-17; for dealing
with social ills growing, 206

Neighborliness, idea of Jesus,
139; social settlements and
good, 257, 258

New York city, congestion of
population in, 183-186; ju-
venile crime in, 263; preva-
lence of venereal disease in,
186, 187

THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

Norms of progress dependent on
the kind of achievement, 92-
99

Obedience, 2 test of friendship,
119

Occupation, sin and the lack of,
167

Ocean Grove Life Guards, 208,
209

Organized charity, social effi-
ciency in, 75, 76

Organized labor, 18; change in,
Xv, xvi; the Church may fail
to lead, 133; the Church to
develop leadership in, 125,
126; claims of, 110; condi-
tions should be studied, 151;
in conflict, xii

Parable of the good Samaritan,
139

Pauperism, prevention of, 204,
205

Peace, emphasis on the world’s,
306, 307

Peril of the Church, 128-133;
in failure to attract the mul-
titude, 129-131; in failure to
master the modern social
movement, 132, 133; what is
the, 127

Personality the basis of social]
settlement, 85; ministry of,
255-258

Philanthropy, constructive and
preventive, 306; the poor and
the Church, 157, 160-164;
social efficiency in, 75, 76

INDEX

Philosopher’s idea of progress,
93

Physical factors available for
the individual, 69; endurance
necessary to efficiency, 67, 68

Playgrounds, results of the es-
tablishment of, 201, 202; to
be provided, 177

Poor, the, and church philan-
thropy, 156, 160-164

Population. See Congestion;
movements, 303, 304

Position, a social factor, 45

Poverty, causes of, 160-164

Presbyterian Church and the
labor movement, 242

Prevention in social engineering,
194-205; is educational, 215—
217; method of, 210-213; of
crime, 201-203; of defective
classes, 203, 204; of disease,
194-198; of drunkenness, 198-
200; of pauperism, 204, 205;
salvation in, 206-208; value
of, 209, 210

Preventive work, in moral re-
form, xiv; the new idea of so-
cial service, 141-144

Problems, social, 107-111

Profession, a social factor, 45

Protestant Episcopal Church
and the labor movement, 241,
242

Public health, team work for,
174, 175; prevention in, 194-
198

Public opinion, 6-9

Public welfare, consecration to,
20

323

Pure food movement, 233, 234
Purpose of social organization, 19

Quantity not a measure of
progress, 95

Race affinity, a cause of city
congestion, 189

Race prejudice, 109

Rapid transit, its lack a cause
of congestion, 188

Rebuke of friendship, 119, 120

Religion, its progress measured,
98

Religious activity, social effi-
ciency in, 75

Religious social engineer, xvili—
xxiii

Resources, conservation of Chris-
tian, 283-296

Responsibility for conditions, to
be studied, 149, 150

Revivals, backsliders after, 131

Roosevelt, Theodore, activities
of, 68

Ross, Professor, on sin in so-
ciety, 221, 222, 225, 232

Rural church problem, 286, 287,
290, 291

Rural communities, deficiencies
of, 189, 190; to be made more
attractive, 190-196

Rural problem, leaders needed
for the, 297, 298

Sacrifice, an element of friend-
ship, 119

Saloon, reasons for abolishing
the, 198-200

324

Saloon keepers, to be punished
for infringement of law, 168
Salvation. See Social Salvation;
social factors in, 228-235

Salvation—Preventive, 206-217;
the boy problem solved by,
271, 272; educational, 215-
217; method of, 210, 211;
not negative, 213-215; su-
preme emphasis to be placed
on, 296; value of, 209, 210

Sanitation, city, xii

Service. See Social Service;
not honor, xxi

Settlement, the social, 251-261

Sewage disposal and typhoid
fever, 175

Sin and mutualism, 214: of
society against the individ-
ual, 225-227; social conscious-
ness and, xiv, xv; social per-
spective of, 221-225; social
salvation and social, 218-237;
to be overcome with good,
213

Sinning, the, and church phi-
lanthropy, 156, 166-168

Skill a social factor, 46

Slum, the, 181

Social advantage, factors which
give, 43-47

Social barriers, 50-52

Social class-consciousness, highly
developed, xi

Social classification, 38-41; va-
rieties of, 41-43

Social cleavage, 48-50

Social conflict, 52-55

Social consciousness, 3-13, 37-

THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

58; aroused, xiv; implies abil-
ity to make use of ideas, 84;
meaning and value of, 3-6;
not to be confounded with
social mind, 83

Social control and reform, 12,
13; not majority rule, 305

Social diseases and their rela-
tion to the family, 109, 110

Social education, 111; James P.
Monroe on, 70-72

Social efficiency of individuals,
58-81; utilized, 72-76

Social emphasis in modern edu-
cation, 297-307

Social engineer, at work, 134-
307; in the making, 1-133;
a new type of religious worker
needed, 294, 295; why needed?
xi-Xxili

Social engineering, prevention in,
194-205; preventive salvation
in, 206-217

Social justice, 54; Golden Rule
the basis of, 240

Social leadership, 122-127

Social machinery, 28-33; and
social engineering, 26-37; clas-
sification of, 29

Social mind, 81-89; conviction
concerning salvation, 20; de-
velopment of, 84-86; educa-
tion of, 86-91; meaning of,
81-85

Social morals, illustration of
teaching, 87, 88

Social movement, the, 233-235

Social organization, xii, 14-25;
kinds of, 21-23; principles of,

AS

INDEX

19-21; reasons for, 14-18;
relation of one to others, 23
Social progress, 91-102; defini-
tions of, 99-102; ideas of, 92—
95; kinds to be measured,
97-99; measured, 95-97

Social reform, 12, 13

Social salvation, 228-237; fac-
tors in, 228-235; what can
the Church do for? 235-237

Social service, community co-
operation in, 169-180; how
to work in the fields of, 145-
148; illustrations of, 139-141;

individual, 141-144; meaning

of, 137-144; method of, xii-
xv; not taken seriously
enough, 171; specific fields of,
148, 149; study of the fields
of, 149-156

Social settlement, the, 251-261;
personality and, 85, 86; value
of, 252-255

Social sinning, against the indi-
vidual, 225-227; and social
salvation, 218-237; definition
of, 218-220; of one group
against another, 227

Social studies, 103-111; list of
specific problems, 107-111;
special commission on, 106,
107; specific, 105, 106

Social unity, the result of the
modern social movement, xvii

Social will, 10-12; possibility of
the development of the, 12

Socialization of all human life,
xiii, xiv

Society, the student to be re-

325

lated to it as it is, 87; teaching
what it is or is not, 87
Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Children, 17, 203
Sociological progress measured,
98
Sociologist, idea of progress, 94
Spencer, Herbert, on progress,
100, 101
Statesman, idea of progress, 95
Stealing, kinds of, 232, 233
Suicide and isolation, 64
Sunday school, the, and church
unity, 9; and public opinion,
8; to discover powers to the
individual, 78; to furnish mo-
tives, 79; a training ground
for social efficiency, 77
Sunday schools, class conflict
and, 56-58; education of the
human mind in, 87; for social
service, 24-32; loss in ado-
lescent period, 131, 177, 178;
a noneffective Bible class, 171,
172; waste in social service of,
28, 30; work of teacher in
adolescent period, 229, 230
Sympathy, aroused by study of
the social field, 154, 155

Teaching social morals, an illus-
tration, 87, 88; what society
is or is not, 87

Team work, for the community,
169-180

Tenements, causes of over-
crowding, 187-190; codpera-
tive, 193; to be improved by
law, 191, 192

326 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER

Theological seminaries may train Waste, due to lack of efficient
settlement workers, 259 men, ix; of Christian resources,
Tramp problem, the, 205 283-296; through lapses after
Transmigration of souls not a conversion, 291, 292
true basis for friendship, 116 Wealth, as a social factor,
Tuberculosis, prevention of, 196; 44, 45; its progress measured,
team work against, 172-174 97
Typhoid fever, a preventable Weltanschauung of labor, 240

disease, 174, 175, 196 Wesley, John, activities of,
68
Unchurched, the, 287, 288 White-slave traffic, breaking up
Unemployed, the, xi the, 174
United Hebrew Charities, work Workingmen, the Church and
of, in 1901-1907, 193 the, 238-250; present attitude
Utilization of social efficiency, of the Church toward the,
72-76 241-244

Wundt, Professor, on social
Venereal disease, prevalence in mind, 82
New York city, 186, 187, 197;

prevention of, 197 Young Men’s Christian Associa-
Vicarious service, a social factor, tion and the labor movement,
46, 47 . 243

THEOLOGY LIBRARY
CLAREMONT, CALIF.

Joao

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40018

Earp, Edwin Lee, b.1867. .
The social engineer, by Edwin L. Earp .
Eaton & Mains; Cincinnati, Jennings & Grahe

xxili, 326 p. 204.

1. Church and

Library of Congress
Copy 2.
Copyright <A 286795

Social problems.

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